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THE GREAT LAKES SERIES 

The Mohawk Valley 
and Lake Ontario 



Bp 

Edward Payson Morton, Ph.D. 




CHICAGO 
AINSWORTH & COMPANY 



Copyright. 1913. by 
AINSWORTH & COMPANY 



The publishers desire to express their appreciation to Messrs. Harper 
& Brothers for the use of illustrations from Lossing's Field Book of the 
American Revolution, also to the New York Central Lines, to O. P. Barnes, 
and to the Cleveland Trust Co. 



©CI.A34619b 



INTRODUCTION 

The author and the publishers of the Great Lakes 
Series feel that it is proper for them to set forth briefly 
the principles which have guided them in preparing these 
supplementary readers. 

Though we realize that our work needs to be inter- 
esting, we do not wish it to be merely entertaining. These 
readers are school books and are not intended as a recrea- 
tion for idle hours. Therefore -we have been careful 
not to give too much space to stories of battles and 
skirmishes or to picturesque Indian legends. Because 
the reading lesson is too often but slightly related to the 
rest of the curriculum, we have tried to supplement the 
work in other studies by laying stress upon the more 
obvious relations between geography, history and com- 
merce. Exploration and trade in America have both 
romantic and practical aspects, and one or the other of 
these is sure to appeal to wideawake children. The 
scenes visited in these books offer abundant material of 
both kinds — the chief difficulty has been to select. 

In deciding upon the story form, as a convenient 
thread upon which to string what we wish to tell, we 
have tried to steer clear of two temptations. We do not 
intend that these stories shall be guide-books; therefore 
we have been sparing of mere dates and figures. Also, 
we do not wish to make James and Carrie a pair of pre- 
cocious little prigs, escorted by a pedant. Therefore we 



have tried to make the characters talk like normal human 
beings, in language that is simple and colloquial, and at 
the same time free from slang and sins of grammar — 
such English, in short, as may reasonably be aspired to 
by those who wish to express themselves simply and 
clearly, without affectation either of bookish precision 
or of slovenly carelessness. 

Some knowledge of history has been assumed : for 
example, that the Revolutionary War was the struggle 
of the American colonies for independence from. Great 
Britain. Nothing has been merely alluded to which 
would demand lengthy or involved explanation; but it 
has been thought worth while to touch upon a few mat- 
ters which are not fully explained, in order to stimulate 
that legitimate curiosity which is a chief source of 
growth in knowledge. 

In accordance with this notion, the Questions, it will 
be observed, are hardly at all a catechism on the bare 
text. They are intended to send the pupils to their 
geographies, to the school dictionary, and to the common 
sources of information with which they should be be- 
ginning to grow familiar. Questions which can be an- 
swered by yes or no have been avoided; they are all 
designed to require a reasonable amount of attention and 
thought about the matter in hand. The habit of observ- 
ing accurately and thinking clearly can hardly be begun 
too soon. 



A BRIGHT JUNE MORNING 






"What's the mat- 
ter, Uncle Jack ? 
Did your letter 
bring bad news ?" 

"No, Carrie. I 
was merely trying 
to work out a plan 
of campaign. Mil- 
ton writes that he 
will meet us at the 
Lafayette Hotel in 
Buffalo for dinner 
Saturday evening, 
and I didn't expect 
to get to Buffalo 
for ten days." 

"In that case, ^. 66^'^'' 'C 
Uncle Jack," said 
Carrie's brother j. foht Txconoekoga 

James, "it's lucky ^- Mt. Defiance 

that whistle you were scolding about got us up so early. 
Here it is only a quarter past seven and we're already 
through breakfast." 

''Right you are, my boy," answered Major Woods. 
Then, turning to his wife, he added : "Lucy, you and 




CALDVILLLf^ 



■ yV 

2. Fort Howe 

4. Mt. Independence 



8 ^. THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

Carrie pack your suitcases, while James and I see if we 
can get an automobile with a driver who knows the 
roads. You might order some lunch put up, too. That 
will save a little time, for we need to reach Amster- 
dam for dinner at half past six. I'll telegraph the Comp- 
tons we are coming." 

''Goody !" cried Carrie, as .she jumped up from her 
comfortable rocker on the piazza of the Fort William 
Henry Hotel at the head of Lake George, where the 
party had spent the night. Then, as she turned again 
to the wonderful clear waters of the lake with its shores 
and islands in all the fresh greenness of June, under a 
sky of a blue that seemed deeper because of the few 
small snowy clouds that floated slowly toward the north, 
she added : "Still, I hate to hurry away from this lovely 
scene." 

After a moment, as they all stood looking out upon 
it, she turned to her uncle and asked : 

''Uncle Jack, you remember when we were reading 
Parkman at Ticonderoga yesterday, that he called Lake 
George the 'Como of the wilderness.' You've seen 
Lake Como, haven't you ?" 

"Yes, your Aunt Lucy and I were there just about a 
year ago." 

"Which do you think is the nicer?" 

"I don't know that I could answer that positively, my 
dear. Both lakes have wonderfully clear water, and are 
right in the mountains. I think Ld like this place bet- 
ter if there weren't so many people here. The "wilder- 
ness" is getting too civilized for me. But it must have 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 9 

been beautiful beyond words when Champlain first saw 
it three hundred years ago." And the Major, as he 
spoke, took off his panama and thoughtfully rubbed his 
high smooth forehead which shone above his ruddy face, 
with the clear, resolute gray eyes, close cropped white 
mustache, and firm red lips. Then, thrusting his handker- 
chief back into the pocket of his gray coat, he said briskly : 
''Well, well, we must be off. Come on, James." 

HOW THEY CAME TO LAKE GEORGE 
While Carrie and her Aunt Lucy are packing up, and 
James and his uncle are finding a suitable auto and driver, 
let us trace their journey dius far. James Woods, just 
turned fifteen, and his sister Carrie, who was nearly 
thirteen, had been visiting their Uncle Jack at Montreal. 
The children had made the journey from Chicago by 
the most direct rail route, and without stop. Their 
Uncle Jack, finding them both interested in United States 
History, which they had been studying at school, pro- 
posed to take them back to Chicago by way of the great 
lakes, but instead of going up the St. Lawrence, and 
through the Thousand Islands, he took them up the 
Richelieu River to Lake Champlain and thence to the 
head of Lake George, where jve have just made their 
acquaintance. This was Champlain's route on his first 
expedition against the Iroquois; and in their journey 
from Lake George across New York to Lake Ontario, 
they would follow the tracks of some of the characters 
in Cooper's 'Last of the Mohicans' and 'Pathfinder.' 

On the day before, they had come from Burlington, 
Vermont, past Crown Point to Ticonderoga. While they 



10 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



ate lunch in the lee of the ruins, Carrie, who had spent 
hours in her uncle's library at Montreal devouring Park- 
man's volumes as eagerly as if they were fiction, had read 
to them his account of Champlain's first battle with his 
allies the Hurons and Algonquins against the Iroquois. 
''Champlain," says Parkman, ''wore the doublet and long 




Montreal in 1760 

hose then in vogue. Over the doublet he buckled on a 
breastplate, and probably a back-piece, while his thighs 
were protected by cuisses of steel, and his head by a 
plumed casque. Across his shoulder hung the strap of 
his bandoleer, or ammunition-box; at his side was his 
sword, and in his hand his arquebuse, which he had load- 
ed with four balls. Such was the equipment of this 
ancient Indian-fighter, whose exploits date eleven years 
before the landing of the Puritans at Plymouth, and 
sixty-six years before King Philip's War. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 11 

"Each of the three Frenchmen was in a separate 
canoe, and, as it grew light, they kept themselves hidden, 
either by lying at the bottom, or covering themselves 
with an Indian robe. The canoes approached the shore, 
and all landed without opposition at some distance from 
the Iroquois, whom they presently could see filing out 
of their barricade, tall, strong men, some two hundred 
in number, of the boldest and fiercest warriors of North 
America. They advanced through the forest with a 
steadiness which excited the admiration of Champlain. 
Among them could be seen several chiefs, made con- 
spicuous by their tall plumes. Some bore shields of 
wood and hide, and some were covered with a kind of 
armor made of tough twigs interlaced with a vegetable 
fiber supposed by Champlain to be cotton. 

"The allies, growing anxious, called with loud cries 
for their champion, and opened their ranks that he might 
pass to the front. He did so, and advancing before his 
red com'panions-in-arms, stood revealed to the astonished 
gaze of the Iroquois, who, beholding the warlike appari- 
tion in their path, stared in mute amazement. But his 
arquebuse was leveled; the report startled the woods, a 
chief fell dead, and another by his side rolled among the 
bushes. Then there rose from the allies a yell, which, 
says Champlain, would have drowned a thunder-clap, and 
the forest was full of whizzing arrows. 

"For k moment the Iroquois stood firm and sent back 
their arrows lustily; but when another and another gun- 
shot came from the thickets on their flank, they broke 
and fled in uncontrollable terror. Swifter than hounds, 



12 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



the allies tore through the bushes in pursuit. Some of 
the Iroquois were killed; more were taken. Camp, 
canoes, provisions, all were abandoned, and many weap- 
ons flung down in the panic flight. The arquebuse had 
done its work. The victory was complete." 

"My ! I'd like to have been there !" exclaimed James. 
"Those Iroquois must have been puzzled by that gun !" 

When lunch was over, our party strolled about, look- 
ing at the ruins ; Major Woods pointed out to James how 



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Ruins of Ticonderoga 



possession of the site meant control of travel up and 
down the lake, because supplies and artillery could be 
transported with comparative ease and quickness by 
water, but by land only with great difficulty if at all. 
"Now I see," said James, "why in all the French and 
Indian wars there was fighting somewhere along here. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 13 

If the French wanted to get at the English they would 
come this way, and if the English got this far they had 
a good chance to attack Montreal by going on down the 
Richelieu." 

"Yes," replied his uncle. "And do you see why there 
was fighting here during the Revolution?" 

"Of course," answered James, after a moment's 
thought. "Canada was loyal to England, and if the Con- 
tinentals controlled this point they could keep the Eng- 
lish forces at New York and Montreal from helping each 
other." 

"By the way," said the Major, "to go back to the 
last French and Indian War, when the English attacked 
Ticonderoga in 1758, do you remember reading about 
a young officer, Lord Howe, who was killed in a skir- 
mish?" 

"Yes, I think I do." 

"Well, he was Milton's great-great-grandfather. He 
was only thirty-four, but he had proved his courage. He 
was second in command, under General Abercrombie, and 
Lossing tells us that when they came near the French, 
'Major Putnam, with about one hundred men, advanced 
as a scouting-party to reconnoiter. Lord Howe, eager 
to make the first attack, proposed to accompany Putnam, 
but the Major tried to dissuade him, by saying, "My 
lord, if I am killed the loss of my life will be of little 
consequence, but the preservation of yours is of infinite 
importance to this army." The answer was, "Putnam, 
your life is as dear to you as mine is to me. I am de- 
termined to go." They dashed on through the woods, and 



14 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

in a few minutes fell in with the advanced guard of the 
French, who had retreated from the first breast-works, 
and, without a guide and bewildered, were endeavoring to 
find their way back to the hnes. A sharp skirmish en- 
sued, and at the first fire Lord Howe, another officer, 
and several privates were killed.' 

"Last summer, when your Aunt Lucy and I were in 
London, we saw in Westminster Abbey an elaborate 
monument to him, put there by the 'General Court of 
Massachusetts Bay.' " 

**Is he buried in Westminster Abbey?" 

"No, Captain Philip Schuyler, who was afterwards 
an American general, took his body to Albany, and it is 
buried there in the chancel of St. Peter's church." 

"That's awfully interesting, Uncle. I didn't know 
we had any ancestors who took part in the French and 
Indian War. I must tell Carrie about him." And off 
he dashed, hat in hand, to where Carrie and her Aunt 
Lucy were looking up the lake between Mount Inde- 
pendence and Mount Defiance. By the time Major 
Woods had joined them James had repeated the story of 
Lord Howe, and they all started off to catch the Lake 
George boat. 

ALONG LAKE GEORGE 

Soon they were comfortably seated near the bow 
where they could see both shores, and as soon as the 
bustle of starting was over and the steamer well under 
way, Carrie exclaimed : 

"Now we are getting to the scenes of the 'Last of 
the Mohicans.' One Indian tribe, Cooper says, called 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 15 

this lake the ^Tail of the Lake/ because it forms a sort 
of tail to Lake Champlain. But Cooper called it the 
'Horican,' and Fve read somewhere that that means 'Sil- 
ver Water'." 

"Didn't the French call it 'Holy Sacrament Lake/ 
Carrie?" asked James. 

"Yes." 

"Why?" 

Cooper says it was because its waters were so clear 
that the Jesuit missionaries always used them for bap- 
tism. But Parkman says that Father Jogues, who was 
the first white man to see it, named it 'Lac St. Sacra- 
ment' because he got to the head of the lake on Corpus 
Christi Day." 

"My! The water is clear, isn't it?' said James, lean- 
ing over the rail, and peering down into the limpid depths. 
"See how far down you can see !" 

"But why is it called Lake George?" asked Mrs. 
Woods. 

"Oh, Sir William Johnson named it that, after be 
had beaten the French in a battle here," answered James. 
"He did it, he said, 'in honor of his Majesty, and to 
assert his undoubted dominion here.' " 

"Well," said Carrie, "that sounds just like an Eng- 
lishman. I suppose, though, that if the French had kept 
this region, it would have been 'Lac St. Sacrament' 
yet." 

"Probably," said her uncle, "but when we get over 
into the Mohawk Valley, we'll see that the French had 
very little chance to keep the country." 




16 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

Just then the steamer passed a high hill which came 
so close to the water's edge that its slope made a steep 
----:-:-.;. :^t?^«i^-. ..- slide nearly two 
■J' hundred feet high. . 
'^' The map called it 
'Rogers's Slide/ 
and James, in an- 
swer to a question, 

Rogers's Slide told how it gOt itS 

name. 
"Oh, in one of the French and Indian wars, an 
American officer named Rogers was chased by the In- 
dians. There was deep snow on the ground, and Rogers 
fortunately had snow-shoes. He came up from the back 
to the top of the slide there, and let his knapsack roll 
down on to the ice. Then, making a big step to one 
side, he turned around without moving his snow-shoes, so 
that he had them on backwards, and made another trail 
down the mountain by way of a ravine, got on to the 
lake, picked up his knapsack and started off across the 
ice. When the Indians came to the top, they first saw 
two sets of tracks both leading to the slide, and thought 
that two people must have thrown themselves over the 
edge rather than be caught. Then they saw Rogers far 
out on the lake. They thought he must have come down 
the slide, and because they believed no man could do 
that without the protection of the Manitou or Great 
Spirit, they gave up their pursuit and let him go. Wasn't 
that a clever trick? He beat the Indians at their own 
game." 



• AND LAKE ONTARIO 17 

For awhile they were all silent, intently watching the 
ever-changing view as the steamer rounded a point or 
passed one of the scores of islands, and opened up new 
scenes, each one seeming more beautiful than the others. 
Suddenly Carrie exclaimed: 

"Jim, I wonder where Hawkeye and the Indians 
landed when they came down the lake to hunt for the 
trail of Magna and his captives? You see, we are going 
in just the opposite direction." 

"I don't know, Carrie. It might have been any one 
of those little coves on that west shore." 

When the steamer came within full view of the head 
of the lake and they could see the hotel on the slope 
where Fort William Henry once stood, James pointed 
to the mountain on the right and said : 

'That must be the height from which Hawkeye, the 
Indians, and the girls looked down on the fort just be- 
fore the fog came up. Don't you think so, Carrie?" 

"Yes, it must be, but we'll look it up tonight and see." 

Before long the steamer reached the dock, and our 
now hungry travelers were glad to find lodging and a 
good dinner at the hotel where we first met them. After 
dinner, they sat on the piazza while the Major smoked. 
James and Carrie were not content to sit still very long, 
and strolled down to the edge of the lake. Presently 
Carrie said: 

"So this is the place where Colonel Munro surrendered 
to Montcalm. Where do you suppose the massacre was?" 

"It must have been just over there," answered James, 
pointing to the southeast, "because the English had 
started back toward Fort Edward on the Hudson." 



18 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Wasn't there another battle here before Montcalm 
came?" 

"Yes. Don't you remember that General William 
Johnson was building Fort William Henry at this end of 
the lake at the very time that the French were building 
Fort Cavillon at Ticonderoga at the other end ? Doesn't 
Parkman tell all about that?" 

"Oh yes, I remember now. And Cooper makes 
Hawkeye tell Heyward about the battle between the 
English under Johnson and the French under Dieskau 
— the 'Dutch-Frenchman' Hawkeye called him. Let's 
read that part of the story tonight." 

"All right. It's getting chilly out here, anyway." 

So they went in, and while the Major and Mrs. 
Woods wrote letters, Carrie and James read again sev- 
eral chapters of the 'Last of the Mohicans,' some other 
scenes of which they were to visit the next day. 

THE CAVE AT GLENS FALLS 

By the time Major Woods and James had found a 
comfortable automobile with a competent looking chauf- 
feur, Mrs. Woods and Carrie had packed up, and were 
waiting for them on the piazza. There had been a light 
shower in the night, but the sky was blue, the light clouds 
held no threat, and the roads were free from dust, so 
that everything promised well for an outing. 

They had gone some three miles when they passed 
a small stagnant pool which the chauffeur told them was 
Bloody Pond. 

"Oh!" cried Carrie, "that must be where Chingach- 



AND LAKE ONTARIO' 19 

gook tomahawked the French picket and threw his body 
into the water. Ugh ! What a grewsome place !" 

"Is that why they call it Bloody Pond?" asked Mrs. 
Woods, turning to James. 

"I think it was because the Colonial soldiers threw in 
there some French and Canadian soldiers wdiom they 
killed in a skirmish near here, just at nightfall one day 
in September, 1755." 

"Right, James," said the Major. "That was in the 
third and last battle that day. Dieskau said: Tn the 
morning the English fought like boys, at noon like men, 
at night like fiends ' 

"By the way, do you know who commanded the 
Americans at the French ambush just below Bloody 
Pond that morning?" 

"No, sir." 

"It was Colonel Ephraim Williams of Massachusetts, 
and he was among those killed. Not long before, he 
made a will leaving his property for a free school which 
afterwards became Williams College. He is buried near 
where he fell, and," pointing to the left just as the ma- 
chine reached the base of French Mountain, "there is 
the marble shaft erected by the college alumni." 

"Is that so?" said James, in surprise. "I wonder if 
Charley Hancock knows that. He's going to Williams 
this fall." 

In a few minutes more they reached Glens Falls, 
passing by Fort Amherst and over the Halfway Brook, 
near which happened several massacres between 1756 and 
1759. The children could hardly stop to look at the falls, 
they were so anxious to explore the caves and see how 



20 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

accurate Cooper's description was. Carrie had brought 
her copy of the 'Last of the Mohicans' with her, and as 
soon as they had made a hurried inspection of the caves 
she opened the book and read : 

"The scout, whilst making his remarks, was busied in 
collecting certain necessary implements ; as he concluded, 
he moved silently by the group of travellers, accompanied 
by the Mohicans, who seemed to comprehend his inten- 
tions with instinctive readiness, when the whole three 
disappeared in succession, seeming to vanish against the 
dark face of a perpendicular rock that rose to the height 
of a few yards within as many feet of the water's 
edge. . . . 

"Smothered voices were next heard, as though men 
called to each other in the bowels of the earth, when a 
sudden light flashed upon those without, and laid bare 
the much-prized secret of the place. 

"At the farther extremity of a narrow, deep cavern 
in the rock, whose length appeared much extended by 
the perspective and the nature of the light by which it 
was seen, was seated the scout, holding a blazing knot of 
pine. . . . 

" 'Are we quite safe in this cavern ?' demanded Hey- 
ward. 'Is there no danger of surprise? A single armed 
man, at its entrance, would hold us at his mercy.' 

"A spectral-looking figure stalked from out the dark- 
ness behind the scout, and seizing a blazing brand, held 
it toward the farther extremity of their place of re- 
treat. ... It was only their attendant, Chingach- 
gook, who, lifting another blanket, discovered that the 
cavern had two outlets. Then, holding the brand, he 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 21 

crossed a deep, narrow chasm in the rocks, which ran at 
right angles with the passage they were in, but which, 
unHke that, was open to the heavens, and entered an- 
other cave, answering to the description of the first in 
every essential particular. . . . 

" 'We are then on an island?' asked Heyward. 
" *Ay ! there are the falls on two sides of us, and the 
river above and below.' " 

"It hasn't changed much, has it?" remarked James, 
when Carrie closed the book. 

"Isn't it just lovely?" she rejoined, as she went to 
look once more at the river boiling and foaming along 
below the end of the 
second cave. She was 
still looking out when 
a sound behind them 
made her give a nerv- 
ous little scream and 
clutch James tightly 
by the arm. It was 
her uncle's voice call- J'-^e McRea's Gkave 

ing to them to come back, for they must go on to Fort 
£dward. 

When they were once more on their way, Carrie 
asked Major Woods: "Uncle, are the people in the 
'Last of the Mohicans' as real as the scenes ?" 

"Not all of them," he answered. "Cora and Alice 
are imaginary characters, though Cora's fate was sug- 
gested to Cooper by the tragic death of Jane McRea, who 
was killed and scalped not far from Fort Edward in 




22 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

1777. Her scalp finally came into the hands of her 
lover, who carried it off to Canada with him, but she 
was buried at Albany. In 1848 Lossing saw at Fort 
Edward a huge pine tree under which she Was said to 
have been killed." 

''Was Hawkeye an imaginary character?" asked 
James. 

"No, not altogether. Your mother's great-grand- 
father was Charles Morgan, who was a spy during the 
Revolution, and served under Lafayette. His son, Abra- 
ham, who lived near Syracuse, was a close friend of 
Cooper's, and Cooper is believed to have taken Charles 
Morgan as the model for Hawkeye, although he invented 
many of the incidents and did not follow the real dates. 
The inscription on Charles Morgan's monument records 
that 'Charles Morgan was one of Major Andre's cap- 
tors, and was in Capt. W. Gifford's Company, Third 
New Jersey regiment. 1752-1797.' You see that Cooper 
changed things to suit himself." 

"Oh, isn't that fun !" cried Carrie. "Dear old Hawk- 
eye was modelled after our great-great-grandfather!" 

The road now led down stream along the west bank 
of the Hudson. 

"How far up the river did Hendrik Hudson come?" 
asked Carrie. 

"Probably as far as Cohoes," answered the Major. 
"That brings up an interesting coincidence. Champlain, 
you remember, was on Lake Champlain the last of July, 
1609. It is not more than twenty-five miles from the 
head of Lake Champlain to Fort Edward on the Hud- 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



23 




Hendrik. Hudson 



son. You see the Champlain Canal practically follows the 

old portage or 'carry' between the lake and the river. 

From Fort Edward it is 

only thirty-five miles 

down to Cohoes, where 

Hudson came barely six 

weeks afterward. And 

yet neither explorer had 

any idea that another 

white man was within 

hundreds of miles." 

"Oh, I know another 
one just as odd as that," 
broke in Carrie. "On 
July Fourth, 1826, just fifty years after the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and 
John Adams both died, and left only one signer living, 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. I think it was fine that 
those two men who had been presidents should die on 
the semi-centennial of the biggest event in their history." 

FORT EDWARD AND SARATOGA 
At Fort Edward they stopped only long enough to 
look for a few minutes at the scene of the opening chap- 
ters of the 'Last of the Mohicans,' and were well on 
their way to Saratoga by lunch-time. As they ate on a 
grassy bank near the road, Carrie asked : 

"Who first discovered the springs at Saratoga?" 
"The Indians must have known of them for many 
years, as Cooper assumes," answered Major Woods, "but 
so far as is known, Sir William Johnson was the first 



24 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



white man to visit them. He was carried there not long 
before the Revolution, and soon after the war was over 
General Philip Schuyler built the first frame house there." 

"Did Saratoga trunks get their name from this 
Saratoga?" asked Mrs. Woods, with a smile. 

"Yes," answered the Major, "fifty years ago, when 
the ladies wore crinoline, it took enormous trunks to 




BuRGOYNE Addressing the Indians 



hold their dresses when they went to a fashionable 
watering-place like the Springs." 

"I know something else that took its name from Sara- 
toga," said Carrie, mischievously. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 25 

"What?" demanded James. 

"Potato chips !" and she turned demurely to her aunt 
with "Won't you have some, Aunt Lucy?" 

"Wasn't there a Revolutionary battle at Saratoga?" 
asked Carrie, after a pause. 

"Yes," said James promptly. "In 1777 General Gates 
forced General Burgoyne and nearly 6,000 English troops 
to surrender. It was the first big American victory. 
There were really two battles, one at Bemis' Heights 
and the other at Stillwater." 

"Well, well," interrupted Major Woods, getting up, 
"this history is all very interesting, but we must be get- 
ting along. We'll have the chauffeur drive us about 
Saratoga for a half hour and then straight on to Balls- 
ton. Do you know what there is at Ballston, Carrie?" 

"Yes, Uncle Jack. Ballston is at the spring where 
Hawkeye took Cora and Alice after he had rescued them 
from the Indians the first time." 

"You may go up head, Carrie. Now, James, what 
can you tell us about Schenectady ?" 

"In 1690, in mid-winter, the French and Indians sur- 
prised Schenectady, which was then a frontier settle- 
ment, burned the houses, and massacred the inhabi- 
tants. This was in the first French and Indian war." 

"Right. Of course, Schenectady was only a village 
then, but now you will find it a city of nearly 75,000 
people. There are great locomotive works there, as vv^ell 
as the chief plant of the General Electric Company. At 
Schenectady, too, is Union College, which is over a hun- 
dred years old. One of its presidents, Eliphalett Nott, 



26 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

was a very remarkable man. He was an eloquent 
preacher, he invented a stove which brought him a large 
fortune, and he was president of the college for sixty-one 
years." 

When they reached Schenectady about four o'clock, 
Major Woods hurried into a drug store and soon got his 
friend Col. Compton of Amsterdam on the long distance 
telephone. He came back to the car and reported that 
Col. Compton had received his telegram and that he and 
Mrs. Compton were expecting them all to dine with them 
and spend the night at their house. 

THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

As they left Schenectady for Amsterdam, almost due 
west, Major Woods said : 

"We are now in the valley of the Mohawk, the chief 
western tributary of the Hudson, and we are following 
the old Indian trail between the Hudson and the Great 
Lakes. When we get over to Rome we'll see how short 
a distance the Indians had to carry their canoes to get 
from the Mohawk to Wood Creek and then into Lake 
Oneida." 

"Why didn't the French come this way instead of up 
the Richelieu, Uncle Jack ?" asked James. 

"If you look at the map you will see that Montreal, 
Albany, and Oswego are at the corners of a rough right- 
angled triangle, with Albany in the right angle; so that 
for the French to come by Oswego would have taken 
them around two sides of the triangle. Besides, when 
Champlain first went west from Montreal his Indian 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 27 

friends took him up the Ottawa River, and through Lake 
Nipissing to Lake Huron, then back through Lake Sim- 
coe and a long chain of lakes, and down the River Trent, 
which brought him out on Lake Ontario, where Trenton 
now is, almost across from Rochester. It seems odd, 
doesn't it, that he should have discovered Lake Huron 
before he did Lake Ontario, but his journals leave no 
doubt." 

"Well, Uncle Jack," persisted James, "why did the 
French do all the exploring on the. Great Lakes ? Why 
didn't the English go across here sooner?" 

"There were several reasons, James. In the first 
place the Englishmen who settled in Virginia and Massa- 
chusetts, and later in New York and Pennsylvania, were 
colonists and came here to build homes. They didn't de- 
pend upon the Indians for food or for trade, and needed 
only to protect themselves against them. Eor the most 
part they did that by fighting them off. But the French 
were fur traders, and had only a few trading posts far 
apart, which depended for success on the furs they could 
get from the Indians. If the Indians were hostile they 
couldn't trade with them, and French hunters and trap- 
pers would not be safe. So from the very beginning, the 
French made friends with the Indians. 

"That policy had some immediate and unforeseen 
results, too. In order to prove his friendship for the 
Hurons and Algonquins, who lived in the country above 
the St. Lawrence, and who brought their furs down to 
Montreal, Champlain joined them in an expedition 
against their enemies the Iroquois, who occupied all of 
what is now New York. Carrie read us about that trip 



28 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

yesterday at Ticonderoga. The Iroquois naturally be- 
came the bitter enemies of the French, and therefore 
were friendly to the English. The hostility of the Iro- 
quois kept the French out of New York, and so for over 
a hundred years the English and Dutch settlers along the 
coast were separated from the French along the lakes 
by a wide strip of wilderness. The French established 
only one post on the New York side of Lake Ontario, at 
Niagara, and the English had no posts on the Lake until 
the 18th century. The first English trading post on the 
lake was at Oswego, in 1722, at the end of this very 
route we are now taking. So when they did cross New 




Iroquois House 

York, they followed the old Indian trail, up the Mohawk, 
across the 'divide' and down through Lake Oneida and 
the Oswego River. 

'The first two French and Indian wars. King Wil- 
liam's and Queen Anne's, you remember, were the re- 
sult of quarrels between France and England In Europe. 
In the first one, when the French wanted to attack the 
English in New York, they had to come clear across to 
Schenectady, which was a frontier village right out in the 
wilderness, although it is only sixteen miles from the 
Hudson. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 29 

"By the time of the third French and Indian war, 
King George's, the French and English outposts were a 
little closer together. Up on Lake George, the English 
were at Fort William Henry, and the French at Ticon- 
deroga. Over on Lake Ontario, the French had Fron- 
tenac at the foot of the lake and Niagara at the head, 
while the English were at Oswego. But the fourth war, 
the real French and Indian war, started in America be- 
cause the English had by that time pushed across the 
Alleghanies into the Ohio valley, which the French 
claimed. So the two nations decided to fight it out, and 
the English won." 

"Were the English so much better fighters than the 
French, Uncle?' asked James. 

"Perhaps they were, James. But the real reason why 
the English won " was because they outnumbered the 
French about twenty to one, and were fighting for terri- 
tory they had settled, while the French had only a string 
of little trading posts. If the French had settled Canada 
as the English did New York and New England, the 
French might possibly have kept Canada to this day. But 
the English conquered it and proceeded to settle it. 

"But see," and the Major pointed across the valley, 
"There is the river, there is the canal, and there are two 
railroads, one on each side. This Mohawk Valley, which 
was once the warpath of the Iroquois is now a chief 
highway of commerce." 

"Well !" said Carrie, "I didn't realize that geography 
had so much to do with history." 

"It has a great deal to do with it," responded Major 
Woods. Hendrik Hudson went up the North River be- 



30 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

cause he thought it might lead him to China; and if the 
St. Lawrence hadn't run pretty nearly west, perhaps the 
French wouldn't have explored it as they did. They 
were sure they could get to China; you know they even 
called the rapids above Montreal 'Lachine,' because they 
thought that China was not far beyond." 

"Oh yes, Uncle," cried James. "I remember now that 
the natives of America were called Indians because the 
explorers thought they had reached India." 

By this time, they were in sight of Amsterdam, and 
soon the automobile drew up in front of Col. Compton's, 
where we will leave them for a while. 

After dinner, while Major Woods and his host dis- 
cussed old times over their cigars, the ladies went down 
town with James and Carrie to look in at the show win- 
dows and get some souvenir postals. On their return 
Col. Compton showed them his collection of Indian rel- 
ics — strings of wampum, stone axes and arrowheads, 
tomahawks, scalping-knives, some old flint-lock muskets 
and rifles, and as a final grewsome touch, a warrior's 
scalp-lock, neatly stretched and dried on a frame. 

"Col. Compton, can you tell whether that scalp be- 
longed to an Oneida or a Delaware, as Chingachgook 
could?" asked James. 

"No, my knowledge doesn't go that far. All I know 
is that each tribe had its own way of shaving the head 
around the war-lock, and patterns and colors of war- 
paint as individual as a Scotch clan's tartan. But you 
know it takes special training to see and interpret small 
differences. Isn't it Hawkeye who is always talking 
about the different 'gifts'?" 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 31 

"Yes," answered Carrie, "he tells Jasper Western, in 
the 'Pathfinder,' 'You have your gifts, which incline most 
to the water, as mine incline to the woods.' " 

"I had an illustration of that the other day," con- 
tinued Col. Compton. "As I was driving out to the 
farm I picked up a horseshoe in the road. To me it was 
just a horseshoe, but when my man looked at it he told 
me at once that it was the left hind shoe from a horse 
with the stringhalt." 

"Why," said James, "he would have made a good 
scout, wouldn't he?" 

"Our gardener at home," said Carrie, "can go into 
the grocery and name the kinds of strawberries in the 
different crates. He says it is just as easy to tell one 
kind of strawberry from another as it is to tell a Ben 
Davis apple from a Bellflower." 

"Well," said Mrs. Woods, "I don't believe you men 
could name the pattern of a piece of lace, or tell whether 
it was real or machine-made." 

"I can't do that," said James, "but I can tell what 
make an automobile is without seeing the name." 

By this time it was near ten o'clock, and the visitors 
bade their hosts goodnight and went to their rooms to 
write letters and prepare for an early start in the morn- 
ing. 



32 ■ THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

Where is Lake Co'mo? 

Trace on a map the route from Mont r5 al' to Fort William 
Henry. 

Into what does the Richelieu (reesh'loo) River empty? 

Find on a map Burlington, Crown Point and Tl c6n*der o'ga. 

Find out something about Francis Parkman; about Samuel 
de Champlain (sham plan'); about James Fenimore Cooper; 
about Montcalm (montkahm')- 

cuisses (kwises) were plates of armor for the thighs. 

Who were the Continentals? 

What is Westminster Abbey? Where is it? 

Corpus Christi Day is the ninth Thursday after Easter. 

Lac St. Sacrement (lak'san sak're mon) is French for Holy 
Sacrament Lake. 

Tell in your own words the story of Roger's Slide. 

In the 'Last of the Mohicans' (mohe'cans), the pursuit of 
Magua (mag'wah) and his captives is told in Chapter 20; the 
height from which Hawkeye and the others looked down is 
described in Chapter 14; the story of Munro's surrender is told 
in Chapters 16 and 17; Hawkeye 's account of the fight with 
Baron Dieskau (dees'kow), who was a German officer in the 
service of France, is told in Chapter 14; the caves at Glenn's 
Falls are described in Chapter 6; the visit to the spring at Balls- 
ton is recounted in Chapter 12. Chingachgook (chin'gatch gook), 
or 'the Great Serpent', and his son Uncas (un'kas) are Hawkeye's 
Indian friends. 

What is a portage or 'carry'? 

Trace on a map Champlain 's journey from Montreal to Lake 
Huron, and thence to Lake Ontario. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



33 



When was King William's War? Queen Anne's? King 
George's? 

Find on a map Fron'te nac (now Kingston, Ontario), Niagara, 
and Oswego. 

When was the last French and Indian War? (In Europe it is 
called the 'Seven Years' War'.) 

At what place in the Ohio Valley was the first dispute between 
the French and the English? 

Lachine (lah sheen') is French for China. 

Why were the American savages called Indians? 

Trace on a map the route from Fort William Henry to 
Amsterdam, 

Some other proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows : 

Iroquois (ir'okwoy), Algonquins (al gon'kwins), 

Abercrombie (ab'er crumby), Jogues (zhog), 
Schenectady (sken ek'ta dy), Nipissing (nip'is sing). 



Spell, pronounce, 
panama 
doublet 
casque 
allies 
exploits 
apparition 
arquebuse 
site 

artillery 
skirmish 
reconnoiter 
dissuade 



and explain the 
chancel 
ancestors 
snowshoes 
knapsack 
stagnant 
grewsome 
panic 
accurate 
inspection 
spectral 
discovered 
invented 



following words: 
crinoline 
tributary 
right-angled 
hostile 
brand 
'divide' 
frontier 
proceeded 
wampum 
flintlock 
tartan 
stringhalt 



INDIANS AND THE MISSIONARIES 




D 



URING the night James had all 
sorts of adventures with the In- 
dians. Finally he was seated on a log 
^irin front of a camp-fire listening to 
Hawkeye, Chingachgook, and Uncas, 
who were laying plans for a deerhunt 
in the morning, when a sudden war- 
whoop behind him made him jump up 
with a startled cry — and he awoke to 
see the Major standing by the side of 
his bed. 

''My !" said James, "I thought you 
were a Mohawk about to scalp me !" 

"I rather thought you were dreaming. Hurry up now. 
The first bell has rung, and we mustn't keep breakfast 
waiting." 

After a hearty breakfast, our party said goodbye 
to the Comptons, w^ere driven downtown, and took a 
westbound train. Soon they were out of Amsterdam 
and spinning along up the valley. 

"In a few minutes," said the Major, "we will pass 
near Auriesville, which is on the site of an old 
Iroquois village called Ossernenon. It was to this 
village that the Indians brought as a captive Father 
Isaac Jogues, one of the early Jesuit missionaries in 
this region. The Indians were so enraged at his 



36 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

fatherly tenderness to two young Frenchmen, Rene 
Goupil and William Couture, who were with him, that 
they tore off his clothing and beat him with clubs 
until he dropped half-dead at their feet. Then they 
fell upon him, and bit his feet and hands, and even tore 
out his nails and crushed the bones of his fingers with 
their teeth. Whenever they met another party of In- 
dians, they would form a double file and compel their 
prisoners to 'run the gauntlet' — 'the narrow path of 
Heaven,' Father Jogues called it. 

"Every day they were tortured, and in the evening 
given up to the children, who amused themselves all 
night in practicing cruelties upon them. Finally, ac- 
cording to the Iroquois custom. Father Jogues was 
given as a slave to a family which had lost a mem- 
ber by death during the expedition on which he was 
captured. For nearly a year Father Jogues endured 
his slavery, though he was urged to escape by the 
Dutch at Fort Orange, now known as Albany. As 
long as he thought he could lighten the burden of 
his fellow slaves or win the hearts of the Iroquois, he 
remained. At last, when the Iroquois refused to let 
him teach them and kept him away from his friends, 
he decided to escape. The Dutch helped him, hid him 
for six weeks in a miserable barn, and then sent him 
down the Hudson to New Amsterdam, and on to 
France. 

"His friends received him as one from the dead, but 
the missionary spirit was so strong in him that he re- 
turned again to New France, only to be captured once 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 37 

more by the Iroquois, taken back to Ossernenon, and 
this time put to death and beheaded, in October, 1646." 

**Oh, I remember now," said James, *'he was the 
man. who discovered Lake George and named it 'Lac 
St. Sacrament/ " 

"What an awful experience !" exclaimed Carrie. 
"He was a real martyr to the faith, wasn't he?" 

"Yes," said her uncle, "and he was only one of 
many. Don't you remember what Parkman says in 
the Tioneers of France in the^ New World'? It is 
something to this effect : That the French tried to 
win N.ew France not by the sword — as the Spanish had 
done in Mexico and Peru — but by the cross. The 
French did not try to overwhelm the peoples they dis- 
covered, but to convert and civilize them. That is 
why the Jesuit missionaries came with the explorers, 
and were often explorers themselves. That is one 
reason why Champlain and his successors made friends 
with the Indians. Champlain, you know, more than 
once sent Frenchmen to winter with the Indians, while 
he took Indians back to France with him as his 
guests." 

^*I remember more about Father Jogues now," said 
Carrie. "He and his companions lived as the Indians 
did, ate their food, and slept in their cabins. Why, 
then, did the Indians torture him?" 

"Don't you see, Carrie?" said James. "Father 
Jogues was with a band of Hurons when the Iroquois 
captured him. They had never forgiven the French 
for taking the side of the Hurons, and they tortured 



38 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

him, not because he was a priest but because he was a 
Frenchman." 

''Uncle Jack," asked Carrie, "what became of the 
two Frenchmen who were with Father Jogues?" 

"Rene Goupil was put to death by the Iroquois for 
making the sign of the cross on the forehead of a little 
Indian boy. Couture was adopted by the Mohawks, 
but in a few years married a French girl and settled 
across from Quebec. He lived to be ninety-four years 
old, and at least two of his descendants have been 
Canadian bishops." 

THE SIX NATIONS 
"Uncle, what is the difference between the Iroquois 
and the Mohawks?" asked James. 

"The Mohawks formed one of the Five Nations 
which made up the Iroquois race. The others were 
the Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas. After- 
wards, in the 18th century, a few Tuscaroras came up 
from North Carolina and joined them, making Six 
Nations. Can't you tell from your geography, about 
where these tribes lived?' 

"I can make a guess," answered James. "We are 
in the Mohawk Valley, so I suppose the Mohawks 
lived along here." 

"If that is the way you tell," said Carrie, "the 
Oneidas must have lived just west of the Mohawks, 
for we are coming to Lake Oneida soon. South and 
west of Lake Oneida is Lake Onondaga. Then still 
farther west is Cayuga Lake and just beyond that is 
Seneca Lake." 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



39 



"Correct. These tribes lived for maily generations 
in a strong confederation. They were not so much 
more numerous than their neighbors, but they were 
well organized. The Mohawks were the fiercest and 
most important members of the federation, and be- 
cause they lived farthest to the east, they were the 
first Indians to get firearms, which they bought with 
furs from the Dutch settlers in the Hudson Valley." 

"Where are they now. Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie. 

"There are still about 4,000 of the Six Nations in 
New York, and about 6,000 in Canada. Besides these 
there are over 2,000 Oneidas out in Wisconsin, and a 
few hundred Senecas in Oklahoma." 

"Was Uncas really the 'Last of the Mohicans'?" 
asked James. 

"Almost. Cooper was accurate In saying that 
Chingachgook had gone among the Delawares, for in 
1730 many of the Mohicans emigrated from the Hud- 
son valley and from western Massachusetts to the Sus- 
quehanna, where they were absorbed by the Dela- 
wares. Still, there are a very few Mohicans now living 
on Green Bay, Wisconsin. 

"The Iroquois, though great travelers, were not 
nomadic, like most of the Indians west of the Missis- 
sippi. They had their villages, and built great houses 
which sheltered sometimes forty or fifty families. They 
had, too, their log palisades, and their squaws culti- 
vated small fields of Indian corn and vegetables. They 
were savages in their cruelty and in their modes of 
warfare, but they were very intelligent." 



40 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



"Then Cooper's Indians are true to life, aren't 
they, Uncle?' asked James, 

"Yes, I think they are, for the most part. Perhaps 
he idealizes them a little, but in the main he gives you 
a pretty fair notion of what the Iroquois were." 

Just then the train slowed up and came to a stop 
near the center of a small town, and the conductor 
called out: "Fonda." 

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON 
"About four miles north of here," said Major 
Woods, "is Johnstown. I had hoped we might have 
time to go up there and see Johnson Hall, which Sir 
William Johnson built a few years 
before he died. Johnson certainly 
had more influence over the Indians 
than any Englishman before or 
since, and perhaps more than any 
other white man has ever had. 
William Johnson was an Irish boy 
who came to New York in the sec- 
ond quarter of the 18th century to 
take charge of the estate of his 
Sir William Johnson uucle. Admiral Warren of the Brit- 
ish navy. This estate embraced a large part of the 
Mohawk Valley, but young Johnson proved amazingly 
capable. He was a very strong and active man, a good 
hunter, and was a leader in all the games and feats 
of strength, so that he commanded the admiration 
and respect both of the Indians and of the Dutch 
settlers who were^his nearest neighbors. In addition, 




AND LAKE ONTARIO 41 

Johnson could be 'all things to all men': he drank 
with the Dutchmen, ate roast dog with the Indians 
at their feasts, wore their dress, and in their councils 
addressed them with the dignity and flqwery eloquence 
that they loved. After his German wife died, he bound 
the Indians closer to him by taking Molly Brant, a 
sister of Joseph Brant, one of the great chiefs of the 
Mohawks. Johnson understood the Indians, and 
treated them fairly, for he had two rules which he 
always lived up to : he would not deal with the Indians 
unless they were sober; and he always kept his prom- 
ise, no matter what it cost him. 

"In King George's War, it was William Johnson 
who, dressed in the garb of an Indian chief, visited the 
Six Nations, spoke eloquently in their councils, and 
kept them friendly to the English in spite of the at- 
tempts of the French to win them over. In the last 
French and Indian War, Johnson led his tenants and 
the Indians against the French on Lake Champlain, 
and for his victory over Dieskau, he was made a 
baronet. You remember, James, that it was Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson who gave to Lac St. Sacrament the 
name of Lake George. 

"In the battle on Lake George Johnson lost one of 
his best friends among the Indians, Chief Hendrick. 
Hendrick had made two visits to England and on one 
of them had been presented to King George, who gave 
him a fine uniform. You know the Indians were very 
fond of showy clothes." 

"Yes, indeed," interrupted Carrie. "Cooper brings 
that into the 'Deerslayer.' " 



42 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



"Well, Hendrick had his portrait painted in this 
uniform, and I have an old engraving of it some- 
where. His love for fine clothes shows in a story 
about him. It ,is said that on one occasion when Hen- 
drick was visiting Johnson, he saw a suit of clothes 
- :; which he admired very 

much. So the next morn- 
ing he gravely told John- 
son that he had had a 
dream. 

"What did you 
dream?' inquired John- 
son. 

" *I dreamed that you 
gave me that suit of 
clothes,' he answered, 
pointing to it. 

"'Very well,' said 
Johnson, 'you may have 
it.' 

King Hendmck A f ew days later, how- 

ever, Johnson told Hendrick that he, too, had had a 
dream. 

"'What did you dream?' asked Hendrick, 
" 'I dreamed that you gave me such and such a 
tract of land,' and Johnson described the boundaries 
of several thousand acres of fine land. Hendrick 
winced, but he was not to be outdone in generosity, 
and answered soberly: 

" 'It is yours. But — don't you have any more 
dreams.' " 




AND LAKE ONTARIO 43 

"Do you think that is true, Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"I rather think it is, for there are still in existence 
some transfers of lands which speak of them as parts 
of 'Sir William Johnson's dream lands.' At any rate, 
it illustrates both Johnson's shrewdness and the In- 
dian character." 

CHIEF JOSEPH BRANT 

''Which side did Sir William take in the Revolu- 
tion, Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie. 

"Luckily for him, he died in 1774. But his son, Sir 
John, and his nephew, Guy, were both violent Tories. 
They committed many excesses, and their great estates 
were confiscated. After King Hendrick's death the 
Johnsons were aided by another great sachem of the 
Mohawks, Joseph Brant. Sir William Johnson had 
sent him to school in Connecticut, and then employed 
him as his secretary and agent. When the Revolution 
broke out. Brant took the British side — like all of the 
Indians except the Oneidas — and even went to Eng- 
land, where he was made much of by the nobility, and 
had his portrait painted by Romney, one of the lead- 
ing artists of that day. I have an engraving some- 
where, taken from that painting. Brant soon came 
back to America and throughout the Revolution was 
a leader of the Indians. After the war he secured 
lands for the Mohawks in western Ontario, and de- 
voted himself to their welfare. He even translated the 
Gospel of Mark into the Mohawk language." 

"Why, I thought the Indians did terrible things to 
the Continentals in the Revolution," said James. "Was 
Brant converted after the war?" 



44 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



*'No. It is true the Indians did many cruel things 
but Brant was really very humane, especially to 
women and children. When the Tories raided Cherry 
Valley (that is where your great-grandmother was 
born), Walter Butler, one of the worst of them, or- 
dered a woman and her baby to be slain in bed. Brant 

protested, saying, 
'What ! kill a wom- 
an and child! That 
child is not an 
enemy to the king 
nor a friend to 
Congress. Long 
before he will be 
big enough to do 
any mischief, the 
dispute will be set- 
tled.' On another 
raid a baby was 
carried off by the 
Indians. The next 
morning an Indian 
runner brought the 
child to General 
y7 '^ \ Van Rensselaer, 

^ ' with a note from 

Brant, which read : 'Sir — I send you, by one of my run- 
ners, the child which he will deliver, that you may know 
that, whatever others may do, I do not make war upon 
women and children. I am sorry to say that I have 




p.^^c 




AND LAKE ONTARIO 



45 



those engaged with me who are more savage than the 
savages themselves.' And he was right. Some of the 
Tories were more brutal and merciless than the In- 
dians whom they looked down upon as uncivilized and 
barbarous. 

'There is a pretty legend about Brant's ancestors 
that I'll tell you at Little Falls, if you remind me of 
it." 




Distant View op Cherry Valley 



At Fort Plain, our party left the train, and while 
they were refreshing themselves with ice cream sodas, 
Major Woods told them about Cherry Valley, some 
twelve miles south. 

*'In November, 1778, a party of Indians, chiefly 
Senecas, attacked Cherry Valley, killed many people, 
burned all the buildings, and carried off a number of 
prisoners. Among these captives were a Mrs. Camp- 
bell, her eighteen-months-old baby daughter, and her 
mother, Mrs. Cannon. Because Mrs. Cannon was old 
and feeble, and hindered their flight, the Indians toma- 
hawked her as she tottered along beside her daughter. 



46 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



But when the Senecas got back to their own country, 
they treated Mrs. Campbell kindly, and later sent her 
back to her friends. That baby daughter, children, 
was your great-grandmother." 

"How I wish we could go over there !" exclaimed 
Carrie. 

"I'm sorry we haven't time, but I have a very good 
picture of how the Valley looked sixty-five years ago. 
Isn't that a peaceful looking place to be attacked by 
Indians!" 

When they had rested, they walked out to the site 
of the old fort where there used to be a Revolutionary 
block-house. James was espe- 
cially interested, so the Major 
showed him a picture of the 
block-house, and explained how 
it was built. 

"You see it has three stories. 
The first story was thirty feet 
across, the second forty feet, and 
the third fifty feet, so that each 
of the upper stories projected 
about five feet. In the floor of 
the projecting part were loop- 
holes, and by firing through these the defenders could 
keep the enemy from getting close enough to set fire to 
the building. It was built of hewn logs about fifteen 
inches square, so that it was entirely bullet-proof. When 




FoKT Plain Blockhouse 



• . AND LAKE ONTARIO 47 

we get to Mackinac Island you will see one that is still 
standing. 

''Now we must get back and catch the train, for 
we want to get to Little Falls in time for lunch." 

As they went down through the town and past a 
church, Major Woods told them how when the Indians 
attacked and burned the village in 1780, the church 
spire had a bright brass ball on it, which the Indians 
thought was gold. 

'They watched eagerly while the church burned," 
he continued, "and when the spire fell made a rush 
for the ball, and several of them burned their fingers 
badly before they discovered how hot it was !" 

"If those Indians had taken writing lessons," said 
James, "they would have known better." 

"Why?" demanded Carrie. 

"Because every copybook has the sentence 'AH is 
not gold that glitters.' " 

From Fort Plain to Little Falls our party was for 
the most part silent, enjoying the busy, peaceful scenes 
on either side. Once Carrie turned to her brother and 
said : 

"Jimmie, it couldn't have looked much like this 
when Mabel Dunham and her uncle Cap came along 
here with Arrowhead and Dew-of-June." 

"No, I suppose these plowed fields were all woods 
then." 



48 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

AN INDIAN LEGEND - 

At Little Falls the party went first to get some- 
thing to eat. For the first few minutes they paid close 
attention to what was set before them, but while they 
were waiting for their dessert Mrs. Woods asked: 

"Why is this place called 'Little Falls?' " 

"To distinguish it from 'Great Falls' at the mouth 
of the Mohawk, now called Cohoes." 

"Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "you promised to tell us 
an Indian legend when we got here." 

"Before I begin the legend, I must explain that 
each of the Five Nations was divided into tribes, and 
each tribe had its special emblem or totem." 

"Oh, yes," cried James, "I know. In the 'Last of 
the Mohicans' Uncas is saved from the torture be- 
cause when they had torn his hunting shirt off they 
found a small blue tortoise tattooed on his breast." 

According to Colden, each of the origiool Five Nations ntaa divided ioto thru tribes, the Tortoise or Turtle, the Bear, and the 

Wolf. Others affirm that there were eiglit divisions in ench, the other tribes 

^^X j^ being the Crane, the Snipe, the Hawk, the Beaver, and the Deer. The first 

/~^y^ ^^^V^"*^ ""^^® '^^"^ ^ ^^"^ ''^^" pre-eminent; and among the Mohawks, with whom 

^^f i the whites had more direct and extensive business and social intercourse 

*''^V _ ^ than with any others, these obly were known. Title deeds to lands, and 

Sy / other papers, now in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany, have the 

Uo. I. signatures or marks ofthe chiefs of these three tribes attached. The annex- 

cd cuts arc fac-similes, which I copied from the originals. No. 1 is the mark jj^. 2. 

of Trycndagagtt, or Little hendrick, of the Turtle tribe ; No. 2, that of Kanadagea. or Hans, chief of 

the Bear tribe, and is intended to represent a bear lying on 
his back ; No. 3 is the fignature and hieroglyphic of Great 
Hendrick, the celebrated chief of the Wolf tribe, who was 
killed near Lake George in 1755. Kanadagea sometimes 





made a simple crosa, thus : I Little Abra., .m, or 

Tinyahasara, whom we have noted as friendly to the Americans, made a mark thus • jt 1 found upon several papers the 



).+• 



name of Daniel, n chief of the Tortoise tribe, often associated with that of Little Abraham and of Hans. The signatures of the 

chiefs of all the three tribts appear to have been essential in making those deeds or convey- 

•noes legal. Besides the eight (otums here named, there appears to have been, at an earlier 

date, three other tribes, the Serpent, the Porcupine, and the Fox. Giles F. Yates, Esq., of 

Schenectady, one of our most indefatigable antiquaries, discovered a document having the 



marks of twenty-one chiets and that of a woman (Eusena) attached. Among them are those V<// / ^ "J 

of Toguayenant, of the Serpent : Sander, of the Porcupine ; and Symon. of the Fox tribe. The //^ /I'Ol/ I 

' • » of the document is 1714. >^tE //' > V 

DaNISL'8 StONATVa^ 

Indian Signatures 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 49 

"Yes, that was the totem of his tribe. Some of the 
chiefs when they signed deeds made their 'mark' by 
drawing the totem of their tribe. King Hendrick and 
Joseph Brant both belonged to the Wolf tribe of the 
Mohawks. Now for the legend. 

"Long ago, when the river here was broader and 
the falls much higher than they are now, a maiden of 
the Bear tribe was loved by two young sachems, one 
of the Wolf tribe, the other of the Tortoise." 

"What's a 'sachem,' Uncle Jack?" asked James. 

"It is an Indian word for 'chief or 'wise man.' " 

"Don't you remember, Jim," said Carrie, "that Hawk- 
eye often called Chingachgook 'sagamore'? That's the 
same word, isn't it. Uncle?" 

"Yes. But you are interrupting my story. Well, 
the maiden flirted with both her lovers for a long time, 
but finally chose the Wolf. Though the Tortoise was 
filled with jealousy and rage, he managed to conceal 
his feelings, and pretended to be reconciled. One 
evening when the Wolf was away, the Tortoise walked 
with the maiden in the moonlight along the bank, and 
proposed that they should visit a beautiful little island 
in the stream above the falls. She agreed and took 
her place in his canoe. But instead of going to the 
island the Tortoise paddled swiftly across to a cave so 
near the brink of the falls that it seemed impossible to 
reach it without going over them. Here he dragged 
the maiden from the canoe and kept her many months, 
for he could get in and out through a hole in the top 
of the cave, which was out of her reach. 



50 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Her family and the Wolf mourned her as dead, 
but at last the Wolf accidentally saw the mouth of 
the cave from across the river, and recognized his 
rival's canoe tied at its entrance. So at midnight he, 
too, paddled swiftly and skilfully across the stream, 
landed safely, and found the maiden and the Tortoise 
fast asleep. The Wolf struck at the Tortoise with 
his tomahawk, but because the moonlight was feeble, 
only succeeded in wounding him slightly. The Tor- 
toise, unarmed, made a leap, escaped through a hole 
in the roof of the cave, and closed the passage with 
a stone. Then the Wolf and the Bear maiden, know- 
ing he would soon return with help, decided to die in 
the river. They seated themselves side by side in the 
canoe and pushed it out into the current. Swiftly 
their frail boat sped over the boiling waters and 
plunged down the cataract. But the Great Spirit pro- 
tected them, and their canoe came safely out of the 
foam and spray and floated on down the Mohawk to 
a pleasant valley where the Wolf and his rescued bride 
lived and loved until their children's children had 
grown up about them. From these two, they say, was 
descended Joseph Brant, the great sachem of the Mo- 
hawks, the strong Wolf of his nation." 

THE ERIE 'CANAL 

As the Major led the way down to the river, he 
pointed out that in the days before the canal Little Falls 
must have been a very important place. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 51 

"You see," he continued, "everything had -to be 
'carried' about a mile, because not even empty boats could 
get over the falls. One early traveler reported that the 
portage was over ground so swampy that wheels were 
useless, and the thrifty Germans who settled here made 
a handsome profit by dragging boats and cargoes around 
the falls on great sleds." 

"My!" said James, "traveling must have been slow 
then." 

"It was both slow and expensive. In those days it 
was a little over a hundred miles from Schenectady to 
Utica, and sailboats aided by oars took a week for the 
trip. The railroad has cut the distance to about seventy- 
five miles, and trains make it in two hours or even less. 
Before the canal was built it cost fifty dollars to transport 
a ton of freight from New York City to Oswego, but 
after it had been open only a few years the rate fell 
to four dollars." 

"What cut down the rate so much. Uncle Jack?" 
"Several things. In the first place, after a cargo was 
put on a canal boat at Oswego, it didn't have to be taken 
out until the boat reached New York City. That saved 
a great many handlings, you see, and every handling 
cost time, labor, and money. In the next place, the locks 
divide the canal into a number of ievels', and since there 
is no current to pull against, a boat can be towed along 
faster and with less eflfort. That meant that a boat 
captain hired fewer men and for a shorter time. Another 
thing that helped to lower the cost of moving freight was 
that the locks provided a uniform depth of water, so 



52 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

that larger boats with bigger cargoes could be taken 
through the canal than could go on the river, because a 
river boat had to be small enough to float in the shallow- 
est part of the river, and light enough to be carried past 
rapids and falls." 

"Who first thought of digging the canal. Uncle Jack ?" 
asked Carrie. 

"I don't know certainly. It was proposed as early as 
1722, the year in which the English first established a 
trading-post at Oswego. But it was nearly a hundred 
years before work was begun on it, and it wasn't com- 
pleted until 1825. The Clinton family were the chief 
movers in its construction, and De Witt Clinton, then 
Governor of New York, traveled with a party from 
Buffalo to New York on the first boat which went 
through the canal. At every town along the way there 
was a great celebration, and at New York the canal boat 
was towed out into the bay where a keg of water from 
Lake Erie was emptied into the Atlantic to symbolize 
the union of lake and ocean. 

''One of the interesting incidents of the occasion was 
the device for letting New York know when the party 
began the journey from Buffalo. Cannon were stationed 
within sound of each other all the way to New York, 
and the moment the party started the first cannon boomed 
the message to the next, which passed it on, until the 
news reached New York just eighty-one minutes later. 
Messages have since been telegraphed around the world 
in much less time than that, but for those days it was a 
record. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



53 



"Well, well!" he concluded abruptly. "Here we are 
talking about the canal when we ought to be on our way 
to Rome. We will have just about time to catch the 
next car." 

Less than a half hour's ride on the trolley brought 
our party to Herkimer, where Major Woods reminded 




On the Mohawk River 

James and Carrie that twenty-five miles south, at the 

foot of Lake Otsego was Cooperstown, where James 
Fenimore Cooper lived. 

"Lake Otsego!" cried Carrie. "Why, that is the 

lake on which so many things happened in the 'Deer- 
slayer'. But Cooper called it the 'Glimmerglass'." 

"It was at Lake Otsego, in the summer of 1779," 
said the Major, "that General James Clinton, the father 



54 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

of Governor De Witt Clinton, did what the Indians 
thought was a miracle. He was at the south end of the 
lake, unable to move his supplies because the water was 
so low. He therefore built a dam at the outlet of the 
lake, which raised the water enough to overflow the 
cornfields of the Indians, and when he cut the dam the 
flood of water which poured down the outlet was enough 
to float all his boats. The Indians were so frightened at 
the sudden rising of the lake without any apparent cause, 
and at the flood in the outlet without any rains, that 
they thought the Great Spirit must be angry at them, and 
retreated to the depths of the forests." 

''Evidently," said James, "Governor Clinton wasn't 
the only member of the family who could make the water 
carry him wherever he wanted to go." 

As they passed through Ilion Major Woods said: 

"Do you see that group of buildings over there ? That 
is the Remington factory, where they make firearms, and 
— what is really better worth remembering — where the 
first typewriter was made some forty years ago." 

"Rifles and typewriters!" said James. "We had a 
debate in our room last winter about 'Which is the more 
useful, the rifle or the typewriter ?' " 

"What did you decide?" 

"It was a tie vote. The boys all voted for the rifle, 
and the girls for the typewriter." 

"Well !" said Carrie. "I think that was a silly ques- 
tion. I don't see how anyone could tell." 

Before long they came into the outskirts of a big 
city. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



55 



"What place is this?" asked Mrs. -Woods. 

"This is Utica, once the great meeting place of 
the Mohawk Valley. You see, this was the place 
where the old Iroquois trail branched off westward 
to the Genesee Valley and Buffalo. There was a ford 
across the Mohawk here, too, so that it was a good meet- 
ing place. Another trail ran south, about where the 
Chenango canal runs, to the Susquehanna, and still an- 
other north to the Adirondack lakes." 




Continental Cukeency 

"Then this is another illustration of how commerce 
has followed the old trails, isn't it?" said James. 

"Yes. The Indians found the easiest way, and those 
who came later followed in their steps." 

As they went through Oriskany and Stanwix, Major 
Woods said to them: 

"Do you see how narrow and shallow the Mohawk 
is getting? We are coming now to Rome, which is 



56 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



built at the head of boat navigation on the Mohawk, 
just where the canoes had to be carried across a little 
rise to Wood Creek, which let them into Lake Oneida 
and then down the Oswego to Lake Ontario. Tomorrow 
we will get a carriage and drive across the old portage 
to Sylvan Beach where we can take a steamer along 
Lake Oneida to Brewerton." 

When they reached Rome, instead of going to one of 
the chief hotels, the Major took them up a side street 




First United States Coin 

to where an old acquaintance of his was the host of a 
small but comfortable old house, which still had some 
of the attractions of an old-time tavern. Here they made 
themselves at home, and after a plain but appetizing 
meal, they went into the old parlor, which still had its 
"whatnot" in the corner, and a glass case of curios on a 
walnut stand. Among the relics was a bundle of 
Continental currency which the children looked at with 
great interest. 

"It wasn't worth much," said their host. "I've read 
somewhere that in 1777 if you wanted a hundred dollars 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 57 

in' Specie you only had to give a hundred and five dollars 
in this paper money, but that in 1781 a hundred dollars 
in coin vv^as worth $7,400 in paper money. Soon after 
that, no man who had silver would take paper money at 
all. 

"Now here is one of the first coins made by the 
United States. It seems funny that that one little piece 
of silver was worth about as much of this paper money 
as you could get into a goodsized handbag." 

"My!" exclaimed Mrs. Woods. "When you went 
shopping in those days, you must have had to take your 
money in a satchel." 

"Oh, what a cute little stove!" cried 
Carrie, who had been looking around the 
room. 

"Yes," said the host, "that is one of 
the original stoves that Benjamin Frank- 
lin invented away back in 1742. I did 
have one of the pamphlets he wrote ex- franklin stove 
plaining its advantages, but it got lost when we moved. 
That stove I brought from my grandfather's old house in 
Philadelphia." 

"Now, children," said their uncle, as the host left 
them to attend to another guest, "you had better be 
reading the 'Pathfinder', for tomorrow we are going to 
follow Mabel and her uncle down to Oswego. Lucy, 
Fm going into the office to write some letters. We'll 
have breakfast at seven sharp, for we want to look 
around Rome a little before we start." 




58 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



QUESTIONS 

Describe "running the gauntlet." 

What traits in the Indian character are illustrated by King 
Hendrick's dream? 

In the Revolutionary War, who were the Tories? 

Find out something about canal-locks and how they are used. 

Tell in your own words the story of the Bear maiden and her 
lovers. 

Find on a map: Johnstown; Cherry Valley; the Susquehanna 
(siiskwehan'na); Green Bay; Ontar'io (the Mohawks settled 
along Grand River) ; Co hoes'; Lake Otse'go; Cooperstown; the 
Ad i ron'dacks. 

Trace the course of the Erie Canal. 

Find on a map where each of the Five Nations lived. 

Where did the Dela wares live? 

Trace on a map the journey from Amsterdam to Rome. 

Some other proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows: 

Os ser ne'non Rene Goupil (ray nay' goo psel') 

On on da'gas Couture (coo toor') 

Spell, pronounce, and explain the following words: 



missionaries 


gauntlet 


tortured 


confederation 


martyr 


accurate 


palisades 


nomadic 


intelligent 


confiscated 


idealize 


sachem 


translated 


barbarous 


humane 


dessert 


legend 


accidentally 


symbolize 


specie 





THE OLD PORTAGE 




THE first note of the breakfast bell found James and 
Carrie ready to take their seats, and Major and 
Mrs. Woods came down the stairs just as the big door 
was opened. 

"Well, children," asked Major Woods, "how much 
of the 'Pathfinder' did you read last night?" 

"Only the first seven chapters. Uncle Jack," answered 
Carrie. "We were so sleepy we could hardly keep our 
eyes open." 



60 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Anyway," added James, "we saw Mabel safely into 
her father's arms at Oswego." 

"Good!" said the Major. "If nothing happens we'll 
be in Oswego long before night." 

When they had finished breakfast, the Major drew 
from his pocket a small map of the portage at Fort 
Schuyler as it was just before the Revolution. 

"See," he said, "this is Fort Schuyler here close to 
the Mohawk. Across the 'elevated plain' runs the 
Albany road. The fort marked '9' was Fort Newport, 
a sort of advance post, to keep boats from getting 
up to the portage on the east. Now where do you sup- 
pose the portage itself was?" 

"Why, I think it must have run across this little 
field with the trees in it," said James, "from that crook 
in Wood Creek to the mouth of the little stream that 
runs under the walls of Fort Schuyler. That would be 
the shortest way." 

"Yes, that was the portage, and in 1797 they dug a 
canal across there. You see it was only about a mile." 

"Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "I thought this was Fort 
Stanwix." 

"You are right. It was Fort Stanwix in colonial 
times. But before the Revolution began the fort was 
in ruins, and when they rebuilt it, they called it Fort 
Schuyler." 

"Oh horrors!" said Mrs. Woods, "look at that hide- 
ous Indian peering from behind that tree." 

"He looks just like Chingachgook," said James. 
"Don't you remember, Carrie, how Cooper talks of 'his 
closely shaved head, on which no other hair than the 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 61 

well-known and chivalrous scalping-tuft was pre- 
served ?' " 

''Why 'chivalrous', James?" asked Mrs. Woods. 

"Because this scalp-lock made it easier for 3^our 
enemy to tear your scalp off after he had killed you." 

"That's a very queer idea of chivalry, I think." 

"Well, well!" exclaimed the Major, starting up. 
"Are you all ready? The carriage will be here in a few 
minutes." 

When Major Woods had paid their bill in nice crisp 
greenbacks, the host turned to James and Carrie and 
gave each of them one of the slips of Continental cur- 
rency they had been so interested in the night before. 

"I don't think you'd better try to pay any bills with 
them," he said, "but if you keep them they'll recall some 
of the things you have learned from your trip." 

"Thank you ! thank you !" said the children together. 
Then, as they went out to the carriage, James said : 

"I got fifty dollars. Carrie. How much did you get?" 

"Oh, I beat you, for mine is sixty-five dollars !" 

ON LAKE ONEIDA 

As they started on their two-hour drive to Sylvan 
Beach, Major Woods said: 

"Of course, if we had an automobile we could easily 
make this trip in less than an hour. But the weather is 
fine, the country is pretty, and we'll be in plenty of time 
for the boat. Besides, I do like to ride behind a good 
team of horses, and these fellows are going to do very 
nicely." 

The drive in the fresh morning air was delightful, 



62 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



though the broad highway and the well-tilled fields did 
not look much like the scene which must have met the 
eyes of Charles Cap and his niece as they turned their 
faces toward the long miles of Indian-haunted forest 
between Fort Stanwix and Oswego. ^ But when they 




An Iroquois Fort 

were on boara and the fussy little steamer was chugging 
along on the open stretch of Lake Oneida, the children 
could now and then imagine how it must have looked 
when there were no white men along its banks. 

"Jimmie," asked Carrie, "do you suppose they kept 
close to shore in their canoe, or did they go right out 
in the middle?" 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 63 

"Well," answered James reflectively, "I should think 
they'd stay close to this north shore, because they could 
keep in the shade most of the time, and go nearly in a 
straight line to the outlet." 

*'Yes, I suppose they would. Besides, they wouldn't 
be much afraid of Indians so near the fort." 

Presently Major Woods said to them: "You remem- 
ber, children, that Champlain once came across Lake 
Ontario and up into the wilderness here to attack the 
Iroquois. We don't know certainly just where he came 
up, but he probably came into the mouth of the Oswego 
River. Perhaps he came up to Lake Oneida, perhaps he 
went the other way to Lake Onondaga. At any rate, 
somewhere in this region he and the Hurons came upon 
an Iroquois fort and attacked it. Champlain made a 
drawing of it, which I copied because it shows how much 
farther advanced the Iroquois were than the more savage 
Indians of the West. See, they had a regular stockade 
that was proof even against the firearms of the white 
man. Of course, if white men had been building such a 
defense, they would have put projecting towers at the 
corners so that without exposing themselves they could 
shoot anyone who managed to get close up to the walls." 

"But, Uncle Jack," said James, "look at all those 
sharp stakes outside the walls." 

"Yes, I see. But an enemy might get past them, 
and if his friends could keep the defenders from leaning 
over the top of the wall, he could set fire to the logs, or 
even chop a hole in them. 

"Do you see that box on stilts in the lower right- 
hand corner? The Indians built that under Champlain's 



64 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

direction and then as many as could take hold carried it 
as close to the walls as they could get. I think Cham- 
plain might have taken the fort, but he couldn't get the 
Hurons to fight after his fashion. The only result was 
to make the Iroquois the bitter enemies of the French, 
and ready to make friends with the English when they 
came. It likewise prevented any French settlements on 
the south shore of Lake Ontario. 

"You know," he continued, ''the Iroquois guarded 
their territory very jealously, and drove out all who in- 
vaded their 'Long House.' 'The Long House of the 
Iroquois' was their name for the whole stretch of coun- 
try between Lake Ontario and the Hudson, and was their 
poetical way of saying that the entire region was their 
dwelling-place. The Onondagas, because they lived in 
the middle, between the Cayugas and Senecas on the west 
and the Oneidas and Mohawks on the east, were the 
'keepers of the Council Fire of the Five Nations.' After 
Sir William Johnson came, the ^English were welcome 
in the 'Long House' and at the Council Fire, but the 
French never." 

When the steamer reached Brewerton, Major Woods 
managed, after some inquiries, to hire a trim little motor- 
boat to take them down the Oneida River to Three 
River Point. As they left the landing and passed first 
under the wagon bridge and then under the railroad 
bridge, Carrie and James grew more and more excited. 

"Oh," said Carrie, "I do wish Cooper had told us 
just where Mabel and her uncle climbed the windrow." 

"We can't even tell which side of the river it was 
on. It might have been over there, or down there^'* 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 65 

and James pointed to a low hill on the left bank and 

then to a similar one on the right bank some distance in 

front of them. 

As they neared Three River Point, James said: 
"My! I wish we could go over the fails the way 

Hawkeye and Jasper did!" 

''What ! and leave me standing like Mabel on a rock 

and wondering if I'd ever see you alive again? I 

wouldn't let you go!" 

INDIAN CORN 

Just then the boat slowed down and turned in to 
the landing. While the Major, and James and the man 
were taking their suitcases to the station, Mrs. Woods 
and Carrie walked up and down. 

''Why do they call this place Three River Point?" 
asked Mrs. Woods. 

"Because," answered Carrie, "it is where the Oneida 
and the Seneca join to form the Oswego." 

When the men came back, they all went across the 
river and ate their lunch on a shady bank near the 
water. 

"Carrie, what is it Cooper says about the Oswego?" 
asked James. 

"Let me see. Oh yes, here it is : *A deep dark stream 
of no great width, its still, gloomy-looking current wind- 
ing . . . among overhanging trees which, in par- 
ticular spots, almost shut out the light of the heavens.' 
It's certainly changed a lot, hasn't it?" 

"Yes, it has. But still I think I can get some idea 
of how it used to look." 



66 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



By 
nearly 



\^ 



the time they were through their meal it was 
train time, so they hurried back to the station, 
and were soon being rushed 
down to Oswego. Below Ful- 
ton, as the train ran along close 
to the river for a little while, 
Carrie said : 

"It's changed more down 

here than it has above the falls. 

Listen to this: 

'T h e Oswego, 

below the falls, 





is a more 

rapid and 

unequal 

stream 

than it is above them. 

There are places ^^ 

where the river flows 

in the quiet stillness 

of deep water, but many shoals and rapids occur.' " 

**Well," said James, ''I don't think Hawkeye would 
have much fun matching his wits against the Indians 
along here nowadays. Look at those cornfields." 



Making a Portage 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 



67 



"This seems always to have been a good corn coun- 
try," remarked Major Woods. "When Champlain came 
here he said he found fields of corn, with beans, squashes 
and pumpkins. You see, corn must always have been 
an easy crop for the Indians to have. They didn't 
have to chop down trees and clear the land. They needed 
only to girdle the trees and kill them, so that the leaves 
would fall and let in the sunshine. Then they scratched 
little holes, dropped in a few grains, and covered them 
up. Nature did the rest. 

"Corn has many advantages over wheat. The tender 
stalks are sweet, and the green ears, when the milk is in 
the kernels, are delicious boiled or roasted. The ears do 
not have to be harvested as soon as they are ripe, but 
may hang upon the stalks for several weeks. And corn 
doesn't have to be threshed or winnowed. The Indians 
would strip the husks from the ears without breaking 
them off, and plait the husks so as to tie the ears together 
in clusters. One early visitor here said the Iroquois 
hung the corn along the walls of their houses in fes- 
toons." 

"Why," said Carrie, "our gardener hangs up his seed 
corn that way. Did he learn that from the Indians?" 
"Probably he didn't, but the knowledge came from 
them originally. Then the Indians taught the pale-faces 
to weave the husks into rugs and baskets. The little 
Indian girls made dolls of cornhusks, too. And the 
Indians had husking-bees, when the whole village would 
gather. Whoever found a red ear could make each of 
the others put two yellow ears on his pile. I used to go 
to husking-bees when I was a boy, and we had much the 



68 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

same custom. Now I think of it, it was the Indians 
who taught the white men to use husking-pegs." 

"What are they, Uncle Jack?" asked James. 

"Of course you wouldn't know, because you are a 
city boy. A husking-peg is a sharp-pointed piece of 
wood, usually hickory, about four inches long, with a 
leather thong that slips over two fingers. It is used to 
cut through the top of the husk so that you can strip 
it off of the ear more easily." 

''Did you ever hear the Onondaga legend of the corn- 
youth and his bride?" asked Mrs. Woods. 

"No; please tell us, Aunt Lucy." 

"The corn was a tall, slender youth, with long flow- 
ing robes of dark green, and tasseled plumes, and he 
stood out in the field all day and sang: 'Say it, say it, 
some one I will marry !' At length there came a maiden 
in a soft green mantle adorned with beautiful yellow 
bells. She came boldly up to the youth and said : 'I will 
marry you.' The youth looked at her for a long time, 
but at last he turned away from her and said : 'No, no, 
you are not the one for me. You wander from home 
too much, and you run over the ground so fast that I 
can't keep by your side.' So the pumpkin-maiden went 
sorrowfully away, and as she went the wind brought to 
her the refrain of the corn-youth's song: 'Say it, say 
it, some one I will marry !' 

"After a time there came another maiden. This one 
was tall and slender, like the corn-youth, and she was 
adorned with clusters of flowers and gracefully dangling 
leaves. As soon as the corn-youth saw her he ran to 
meet her and they embraced. And to this day in the 



AND LAKli ONTARIO 69 

Indian's cornfield the corn and the beans are inseparable. 
Even in death they are not divided, for the Indians cook 
corn and beans together and call the dish succotash. 
Isn't that a pretty legend?" 

OSWEGO 

"Oswego!" said Carrie, half to herself, "why, that's 
where the corn-starch comes from 1" 

''Yes," answered her uncle, ''and why not? We are 
going through a splendid corn country. James, can you 
figure out why the mills should be at Oswego instead 
of on Lake Oneida or at Rome?" 

"I suppose because they have water power from the 
falls." 

"Yes, but there is water power at Oswego Falls, too. 
Why not have the starch mills there?" 

"Oh, I see. Because Oswego is on the lake where 
there is deep water for boats." 

"Correct. And that is one reason, too, why Governor 
Burnet established his trading post at the mouth of the 
river. Let me show you a picture of Oswego in .1755. 
I found it in an old 'History of New York' which was 
pubHshed in 1757." 

"Why," cried Carrie, "that is the very time when 
Cooper has Mabel come there. I wonder if Cooper's 
description fits the picture? Here it is. Just listen to 
this: 'The Oswego threw its dark waters into the lake 
between banks of some height, that on its eastern shore 
being bolder and projecting farther than that on its 
western. The fort was on the latter and immediately 
beneath it were a few huts of logs.' " 



70 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



"That's it exactly," said James, who was looking at 
the picture. "Go on." 

" 'Two low curved gravelly points had been formed 
^ith surprising regularity by the counteracting forces of 
the northerly winds and the swift current, and, inclining 
from the storms of the lake, formed two coves within the 
river; that on the western side was the most deeply 




Oswego in 1755 

indented; and, as it had also the most water, it formed 
a sort of picturesque little port for the post.' " 

"Yes," said Major Woods, when Carrie had finished, 
"Cooper's description fits the picture to a T. But I'm 
afraid you'll find many changes. The rows of tents 
on this side of the fort are the encampment of the forces 
of Governor Shirley of Massachusetts. He directed the 
rebuilding of the fort in the picture and the construction 
of another, called Fort Ontario, on the high ground 
across the river. The next year Montcalm captured both 
forts, but sailed away down the lake without trying to 
keep possession. The British soon came back and re- 
occupied Fort Ontario, which they kept until after tlie 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 71 

Revolution. Late in the War of 1812, a British fleet 
captured the fort from the Americans, but soon gave it 
up again. So you see there has been a good deal of 
fighting around here. 

''Instead of the tiny frontier fort of 1755 you'll see a 
city of about 25,000 people, and instead of the tiny 
harbor in the river there is a good-sized inner harbor 
and a huge outer one, and the vessels that come in there 
would make the 'Scud' and the 'Squirrel' of the 'Path- 
finder' look like canoes. 

"Instead of the coves, you will see an immense new 
lock, one of the triumphs of American engineering, for 
the people of Oswego are determined to show that the 
Indians in their canoes found what is still the best water 
route from the Great Lakes to the Hudson." 

At Oswego, Major Woods took them at once to the 
hotel. The children were delighted to find- that from 
their windows they could look over the town and down 
upon Fort Ontario, the mouth of the river, and the 
harbor. 

"Yes, the coves are gone, Jimmie," cried Carrie. 
"But that's a fine outer harbor, isn't it ?" 

"Isn't it, though? I wonder if any of those sailboats 
are built like Jasper Western's 'Scud' ?" 

In a few minutes Major Woods came in, beaming. 
"- "I've just met an old friend in the lobby," he said, 
"Commodore Johnston of Cleveland. He has brought 
his steam yacht down through the Welland Canal, and is 
on his way to the Maine coast. What's more, he leaves 
for Sackett's Harbor tonight at eight o'clock, and has 
invited us all to go with him." 



72 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Oh ! what fun !" cried Carrie. As for James, he 
gave a whoop that would have done credit to a redskin, 
and seizing Carrie, whirled her around until both sank 
almost breathless on the sofa. 

"Well, well!" said the Major, "if you youngsters can 
settle down again^ we'll go over to the river before 
dinner and take a look at the new locks." 

NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

Who were the Continentals ? 

Take a ruler and find out from the scale which is printed on 
your map how many miles make an inch. Then measure Lake 
Oneida. How many inches long is it? how many miles long? 

What did the Iroquois mean by their 'Long House'? 

Cooper says, at the beginning of the 'Pathfinder': "Four 
persons . . . had managed to ascend a pile of trees, that had 
been uptorn by a tempest, to catch a view of the objects that 
surrounded them. It is still the practice of the country to call 
these spots wind-rows... The vast trunks which had been 
broken and driven by the force of the gust lay blended like 
jackstraws; while their branches, still exhaling the fragrance of 
withering leaves, were interlaced in a manner to afford sufficient 
support to the hands." 

Tell in your own words the story of the Corn-youth, 

Trace the journey from Rome to Oswego. How far did they 
travel? 

Spell, pronounce, and explain the following words: 



portage 


chivalrous 


currency 


haunted 


projecting 


poetical 


shoals 


rapids 


particular 


girdle 


winnow 


festoons 


succotash 


originally 


regularity 


inclining 


indented 


counteracting 


route 


determined 


engineering 


yacht 


seizing 


exhaled 



ON LAKE ONTARIO 

AT dinner, to James's great delight, they had roast 
pork. 

"Carrie," he whispered, "do you remember Uncle 
Cap's experience at Oswego?" 

"What one do you mean?" 

"The Sergeant said to him : T hope that bit of a cold 
roasted pig is to your mind ; you seem to fancy the food.' 
'Ay, ay ; give me civilized grub, if I must eat.' Then the 
Pathfinder laughed at him and asked: 'Don't you miss 
the skin. Master Cap? Don't you miss the skin?' Tt 
w^ould have been better for its jacket,' he answered, 'but 
I suppose it is a. fashion of the woods to serve up shoats 
in this style.' 'If you had had the skinning of that pig, 
Master Cap,' Pathfinder answered, 'it would have left 
you sore hands. The cratur' is a hedgehog!'" 

"You horrid boy !" 

As soon as they were through, the Woods made their 
way to the dock, where a launch was waiting to take 
them to the yacht w^hich lay in the outer harbor, steam 
up, and ready to start. As they drew near enough to 
read the name upon its bow, Carrie fairly screamed : 
"Why, it's the 'Scud' ! That was the name of Jasper 
W^estern's cutter!" 

Commodore Johnston met them at the gangway, and 
before they could get to their staterooms and find their 



74 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

sweaters, the yacht was under way. Just as they passed 
the breakwater another vessel came swiftly in, and as it 
neared them, the children both gasped, for on its bow 
they read 'Squirrel.' 

"Now," said James, *'if we can only se^ the 'Mont- 
calni,' we'll be sure we are on Jasper's cutter." 

Everyone stayed on deck as long as the lights of 
Oswego were in sight, then went down to the cabin, for 
a breeze had come up and the air was chilly. In the 
cabin, the children fell to examining a map of Lake 
Ontario, and tried to trace the course of Jasper Western's 
vessel when it took the squad of soldiers down to the 
British post in the Thousand Islands. 

"They came within sight of Fort Niagara once," said 
James, "and then went clear down to Lost Channel in 
the Thousand Islands. Why, they must have gone the 
whole length of the lake. I wonder how long it is?" 

"We can measure it, can't we? Here's a piece of 
paper." 

"Well, I declare. It's nearly two hundred miles 
long." 

"See how wide it is, James." 

"Here at the widest part it is over fifty miles across." 

"My !" said Carrie, "it's lots bigger than Lake Oneida 
or Lake Champlain, isn't it?" 

"I should say it was. Let's see what the geography 
says about it. Here it is. Why, it is the smallest of the 
Great Lakes." 

"See here. Jim," said Carrie, who was looking over 
his shoulder, "this says there are four lakes up in Canada 
which are bigger than Lake Ontario." 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 75 

"Well, it's big enough, anyway. Let's peek out and 
s^e if we are out of sight of land." 

So they went on deck again, but not a sign of land 
could they see, although the moon was nearly full and 
the sky cloudless. 

"Ugh !" said Carrie, after a minute or two, ''it's more 
cheerful inside." When they were in the brightly lighted 
cabin again, they read some chapters of the 'Pathfinder,' 
and then went to their staterooms, to sleep as soundly 
as if they were in their own beds at home. 

SACKETTS HARBOR 

The next morning James and Carrie were on deck 
bright and early, and as they came around Navy Point 
into Sacketts Harbor, there was a big boat just leaving. 
With a glass they made out its name, 'Montcalm/ 

"Is it flying the French flag, James ?" 

"No, it's the Union Jack. I suppose the British must 
have captured her." 

While they were still watching it, Major Woods came 
up to them, and told them that the 'Scud' would stop 
only long enough to see if there were any telegrams for 
Commodore Johnston, and then it would take them on to 
Clayton where they could get a steamer across to Kings- 
ton. 

"What a fine place for a harbor, Uncle Jack," said 
James. 

"Yes. it is a fine harbor, but it is on the wrong side 
of the lake to be very important except in war times. 
You see, it is out of the way for vessels bound down 
the St. Lawrence, and has but little commerce flowing 



16 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

through it from the region back of it. It was fortified first 
at the beginning of the War of 1812. Once the British 
tried to capture two vessels that were in the harbor, but 
the forts protected them. Later General Zebulon Pike, 
for whom Pike's Peak is named, started from here with 
a force which captured Toronto, then called York. Gen- 
eral Pike was fatally wounded and was brought back 
here to be buried. After he had gone away with his 
troops, the British besieged the place with an army and 
a fleet, but could not capture it. 

''Come into the cabin. We'll have time to look at 
the map before breakfast. Here," said the Major, w^hen 
they had the map before them, "is Sacketts Harbor, and 
over here is Kingston, on the site of old Fort Frontenac. 
Fort Frontenac was established in 1673, but Sacketts 
Harbor wasn't settled until 1801. James, can you see 
why the French put their fort on the Canada side in- 
stead of over here?" 

"Yes, I think so. It's because it's right where the 
St. Lawrence runs out of Lake Ontario. Sacketts 
Harbor wouldn't be so convenient." 

"Right. Besides, when Fort Frontenac was built, all 
travel up here was by canoes, and Sacketts Harbor 
would have been a hard day's journey farther on, with- 
out any advantages." 

"Then, Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "weren't the French 
safer from the Iroquois on the Canada side?" 

"Yes. At Frontenac they were among their friends 
the Hurons." 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 17 

THE THOUSAND TSLANDS 

Just then they were called to breakfast, and by the 
time they were through, the 'Scud' was well on its way to 
the channel which leads to Clayton. 

"Are there really a thousand islands. Uncle Jack?" 
asked Carrie. "You know the Pathfinder said: 'My 
eyes are good, and yet I have often been foiled in trying 
to count them.' " 

"Yes, they say there are actually about seventeen 
hundred islands, big and little." 

"How many of them are we going to see. Uncle 
Jack?" asked James. 

"I don't know. If we catch the right boat, we may 
see half of them." 

At Clayton, our party thanked Commodore Johnston 
for his hospitality and wished him a safe and pleasant 
voyage down the ^St. Lawrence. As the 'Scud' went 
swiftly off toward Frontenac Island, they waved fare- 
well and admired the grace of her lines and the spotless 
white of her hull. 

"My ! how she goes !" said James, "they've given her 
the right name, haven't they ?" 

Almost before they realized it, mealtime had come 
again, but James and Carrie could hardly eat, they were 
so anxious to be off. When the excursion steamer glided 
gently up to the dock, the children were the first to go 
aboard, and hurried to the upper deck. With a map 
before them, they traced the steamer's devious route to 
Kingston, and each tried to be the first to guess which 
way the vessel would turn next. 



78 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Jiiii," said Carrie, as they passed an especially 
splendid summer home, with wide verandas, a lofty 
tower, and a boathouse in which they saw a launch big 
enough to carry twenty people, "that's very fine, but I 
believe I'd rather live on one of those little islands in a 




In Lost Channel 

cottage, and have a motor-boat just about big enough 
for four people. Wouldn't you?" 

"Indeed I would!" answered James. ''But look! 
How are we ever going to get through this crooked 
channel?" And they almost held their breath as the 
steamer nosed her way carefully through an intricate 
passage. "What is it called, I wonder?" 

"Here it is : 'Quite-a-Hard-Turn' the map says. 
That's a good name for it, isn't it?" 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 79 

Landon's Rift, the two Needle's Eyes, the big and the 
little, and the Fiddler's Elbow, each called forth more 
exclamations, and soon they were in Lost Channel. 

"I don't wonder the British were able to hide in here 
without being found by the French," said James, "but 
I don't see how Jasper ever found his way in and out." 

*'Do^you think we'll be able to see the block-house?" 

"No, of course not. That must have been burned 
down more than a hundred and fifty years ago. We 
can't even guess which island it was on." 

OLD FORT FRONTENAC 

They had left Lost Channel far behind when Major 
Woods came forward to the bow where the children 
were still sitting, silent now because the changing beauties 
of the scene had exhausted their power to comment on it. 

"Before long -now," he said, "we'll be in Kingston, 
a place almost as important in the history of French 
exploration in America as Quebec and Montreal. Look 
at your map a minute. Do you see that Kingston is just 
where the main channel of the St. Lawrence leaves 
Lake Ontario? It is also where the Rideau River and 
its lakes connect the Ottawa River and Lake Ontario. 
When the French first came up to Lake Ontario there 
was an old Indian village here called Cataraqui. In old 
maps I have even seen that name given to Lake Ontario 
itself. Then, in 1673, Count Louis Frontenac, the new 
Governor of New France, came this way, established a 
fort at the old Indian village and named it after him- 
self." 



80 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

"Why," interrupted Carrie, ''didn't the French do 
that same thing at Montreal?" 

"Yes. The Indian village of Hochelaga was there, 
just below where the Ottawa empties into the St. 
Lawrence. These are only more illustrations of the fact 
that the Indians had about as good a sense for convenient 
locations as the white men. 

"Well, to go back to Fort Frontenac. As long as the 
French kept control of the region, this fort was their 
most important frontier station, for it was the real start- 
ing point of most of their expeditions to Lake Superior, 
to the Mississippi, and to the headwaters of the Ohio. 

"In the summer of 1696," continued Major Woods, 
"Count Frontenac led an expedition from here which 
landed at the mouth of the Oswego, built a tiny stockade, 
and went up into the 'Long House of the Iroquois' as far 
as Lake Onondaga. But he was somehow afraid to 
attack the Indians and came back without accomplish- 
ing anything. Sixty years later, in the French and 
Indian War, Colonel Bradstreet started from Oswego 
with three vessels, appeared suddenly before Fort Fron- 
tenac, and took it without resistance. You can tell some- 
thing of how important Fort Frontenac was to the 
French from the fact that besides large stores of pro- 
visions and ammunition, Bradstreet captured nine armed 
vessels and forty cannon." 

While he was still speaking, the steamer ran between 
Cedar Island and Fort Henry, and Carrie exclaimed : 

"Oh, see that funny old tower on that island !" 

"Yes, that is an old bomb-proof tower which the 
French built. When we come to the harbor you will 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 81 

see more of them. See, there is one right out in the 
water." 

''My, but Kingston is beautiful from here, isn't it?" 
said Carrie, as the steamer turned into the harbor. 

"Yes, it is," answered James, "but it's like all the 
other places we've seen this trip, so modern that it's hard 
to believe it ever was a frontier station with forests all 
around, and Indian canoes the only vessels to be seen." 

At Kingston, Major Woods hired an open carriage, 
and they spent the rest of the afternoon driving around 
the town. They saw the old fort, the two cathedrals, the 
Orphans' Home, and the Royal Military College, where 
they watched a dress parade. Then, tired and hungry, 
they drove to the hotel for dinner before taking the night 
boat to Charlotte and Rochester. 




Bomb-proof Tower 



82 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

Uncle Cap was the uncle of Mabel Dunham, the heroine of 
the 'Pathfinder.' 

With a ruler measure Lake Ontario. How many inches long 
is it? how many miles? How many inches wide is it? how 
many miles? Between what points is it widest? 

Where is Toronto? 

Trace the journey from Oswego to Kingston. How far is 
Kingston from Oswego? from Montreal? from Ottawa? from 
Sacketts Harbor? 

The names of the two Indian villages mentioned in this 
chapter are pronounced as follows: 

Cataraqui (catarak'we) Hochelaga (hSkala'gah) 

Spell, pronounce, and explain the following words: 



experience 

hedgehog 

gangway 

convenient 

intricate 

resistance 



civilized 

launch 

stateroom 

commodore 

locations 

cathedrals 



shoats 

cutter 

breakwater 

hospitality 

accomplishing 



COMMERCE AND WATERPOWER 

WHEN the steamer had left the Hghts of Kingston 
behind and was well out into the lake, where the 
force of the northerly wind was felt, it began to pitch 
and roll heavily, and our party found themselves most 
comfortable in their berths. By morning the wind had 
gone down, but the waves were still high, and the tossing 
waters looked dreary even in the bright sunshine. But 
Carrie and James proved to be good sailors and sought 
a dry spot on the upper deck whence they could already 
see the flags of the two summer resorts at the mouth 
of the Genesee River. As the boat carefully made her 
way into the river and went at reduced speed up the 
Charlotte, they were joined by their uncle and aunt. 

''Good morning!" said Carrie, 'Sve're going to have 
another fine day !" 

'It certainly promises well," answered Major Woods. 
"Do you think you can wait until we get to Rochester 
for breakfast?" 

"I can if we don't have to wait too long," answered 
James. "I could eat something right now!" 

"Well, well, we shan't be long, for Rochester is only 
five miles farther." 

At Rochester, after a hearty breakfast, the Major 
took them first to see the Genesee Falls, and then a half 
mile above them to where the Erie Canal crosses the 
river. 



84 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

*'Do you see, James," asked Major Woods, "that 
running the canal across country this way avoids lower- 
ing the boats down to the lake level and then hoisting 
them up again?" 

"Yes, I see that," answered James, "but why then 
does Oswego expect boats to go there instead of this 
way ?" 

"There are two reasons. In the old days, when the 
canal took only small boats, the barges found a lake trip 
sometimes dangerous. But now that the canal has been 
deepened so as to carry boats with a draft of ten or 
eleven feet, the barges, many of which are propelled by 
their own power, are big enough to be seaworthy. 

"The other reason is a question of time. In a canal, 
boats must travel slowly, so as not to throw up a 'wash' 
that will 'injure the banks. Now, if these boats can 
make a hundred miles or so of their journey on the 
lake, they may travel as fast as they please and are not 
delayed in passing other boats, as they would be on a 
narrow canal. Again, the deepening of the canal reduces 
the number of locks necessary to raise or lower the level 
a given number of feet, and the modern locks are filled 
and emptied so much faster than the old ones that the 
barges really lose no time in getting down to the lake 
level and back again." 

"Uncle Jack," asked Carrie, "why didn't Rochester 
grow up on the lake the way Oswego did?" 

"Can't you figure it out?" 

"I think I know," said James. 

"Well, why?" 

"Because the Genesee Falls are so near the lake that 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 8o 

it was easier to deepen the river as far as the falls than 
to bring the water power down to the lake." 

''Yes, that is true. And besides, after the Erie Canal 
was dug, Rochester had an outlet by water both to the 
Hudson and to Lake Erie." 

"Uncle Jack," asked Carrie again, "why aren't ther£ 
more big cities on Lake Ontario ? There are lots of them 
on Lake Erie." 

"Well, James, can't you work out an answer to that 
question, too?" 

"I don't know, Uncle. I can see why Buffalo should 
be bigger than any city on Lake Ontario, because at 
Buffalo most of the commerce that comes down the 
upper lakes bound for New York has to be transferred 
to trains or canal boats." 

"Why does it have to be transferred ?" 

"Because the boats can't get by Niagara Falls." 

"But, Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "lake boats can go- 
through the Welland ^Canal into Lake Ontario, can't 
they ?" 

"Well," answered James, "even then, they'd have to 
unload at Oswego, or else go on down the St. Lawrence 
and around by sea." 

"Why shouldn't they. James?" asked his uncle. 

"It would take so much longer." 

"Yes, it must be nearly two thousand miles from 
Buffalo to New York that way, as compared with only 
about five hundred by the canal. Not very much com- 
merce bound only for New York is likely to go that way. 
But the time will come when freight from the upper 
lakes that is bound for Europe will go down Lake 



86 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

Ontario and the St. Lawrence, and straight on across 
the Atlantic, instead of going by way of New York." 

"Why, Uncle?" 

"Because it is a little nearer that way, and because 
cargoes that are put on vessels at Chicago or Duluth 
won't have to be touched until they are unloaded at the 
docks in Europe. 

"But that is getting away from Carrie's question. 
Another reason why there are not so many large cities 
on Lake Ontario as on the other lakes is that the region 
on the Canada side (and in New York north of the 
Mohawk Valley) has many lakes, and not so much 
arable land as other sections, and has not yet developed 
great mineral deposits. The result is that it is thinly 
settled, and a small population does not send many 
products to market, and does not need many things 
shipped in. More than that the Ottawa River furnishes 
a natural highway for much of Ontario. As we shall 
see more clearly when we get over on to Lake Erie, 
large' cities always grow up at points where products 
can be most conveniently manufactured or distributed. 

"Now, I think we'll go to Niagara Falls by way of 
Lockport, because I want you to see why the Falls have 
been such a great barrier to commerce." 

THE NIAGARA PLATEAU 

When they reached Lockport, Major Woods said 
to them : ^ 

"Now, if we could go up in a balloon a thousand 
feet or so, we could see that Lake Erie lies in a great 
plain nearly three hundred feet higher than Lake Ontario. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 87 

The eastern edge of it is somewhat worn off, but it 
runs from here north to Lewiston on the Niagara River, 
and over into Canada. Just here, the drop is only about 
sixty feet, though you must remember that we are a 
good ways above the level of Lake Ontario here. Where 
did we get so far above the lake ?" 

"At Rochester." 

"Yes; we climbed up there above the Genesee Falls. 
When we get to Lewiston, we'll be at the foot of the 
cliffs that mark the edge of this plateau." 

Before long the train reached Niagara Falls, and 
Major Woods took them at once to the trolley and they 
went down to Lewiston along the top of the cliff. As 
they went, Major Woods pointed out the various points 
of interest which they were to look at more closely when 
they came back up the gorge. From Lewiston they went 
on down to the mouth of the river. 

"The French established posts here," said the Major, 
"at least three different times in the seventeenth century, 
first in 1675, while Frontenac was Governor of New 
France. But the first one to be called Fort Niagara was 
built about 1725 by Charles le Moyne. You remember 
that was about the time when Governor Burnet estab- 
lished his trading post at Oswego. In 1756 the fort was 
rebuilt and enlarged by the French, only to be captured 
in 1759 by Sir William Johnson. He brought a force 
from Oswego and besieged the fort for sixteen days 
before he took it. I have no picture of the place at 
that time, but here is a view of it from an engraving 
published during the War of 1812. 

"Can you see why the French chose to have their 



88 THE MUllAWK VALLEY 

post here instead of at the other end of the river on 
Lake Erie?" 

''Because," answered James, "even if they had a post 
on Lake Erie, they'd have to have some sort of defence 
here to protect their supplies when they brought them 
up from Fort Frontenac." 

"Oh," said Carrie, who had been looking at the pic- 
ture, '*I wonder if that is the way it looked when Jasper 
Western came up here in the 'Scud ?' " 

*'See what Cooper says, Carrie," 
suggested James. 

''All right," and Carrie got out 
of her handbag the tiny well- 
thumbed copy of the 'Pathfinder,' 
which she had con- 




Old Fort Niagara 



suited SO often in the last three days. "Here it is: 
'Suddenly an opening appeared ahead, and then the mas- 
sive walls of a chateau-looking house, with outworks, 
bastions, blockhouses, and palisadoes, frowned on a head- 
land that bordered the outlet of a broad stream. Just 
as the fort became visible, a little cloud rose over it, and 
the white ensign of France was seen fluttering from a 
lofty flagstaff/ " 

"That's it, all but the lighthouse," cried James. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 89 

"The lighthouse came later," added Major Woods, 
"after the English got control of the lake, and vessels 
feared no enemies but the elements." 

"What's that building over there?" asked James, 
pointing to a low round building of stone on the Canada 
side. 

"That's Fort Massasauga," answered the Major. 
"The English built that in 1814. It is really a stone 
blockhouse." 

"Was there any fighting here in the Revolution?" 
asked James. 

"No. It was still a frontier post. The Tories made 
it the headquarters for raids on western New York, and 
after the war the British surrendered it to the United 
States. But there were several battles in this neighbor- 
hood during the War of 1812. 

"Now, if you have seen enough here, we'd better be 
getting back." 

THE ''THUNDER OF THE WATERS'' 

When they had started up the river toward Lewiston 
again, the roar of the falls fell more loudly upon their 
ears, and Carrie once more got out her copy of the 
'Pathfinder' and read: 

"Cooper says, *A dull, distant, heavy roar came down 
through the opening in the banks, swelling on the cur- 
rents of the air, like the deeper notes of some immense 
organ, and occasionally seeming to cause the earth itself 
to tremble. "That sounds like the surf on some long un- 
broken coast!" exclaimed Cap. . . . "Ay, that is 
such surf as we have in this quarter of the world," Path- 



90 



THE MOHAWK VALLEY 



finder answered. . . . ''That is old Niagara that you 
hear, or this noble stream tumbling down a mountain." ' 
That's a pretty good description, isn't it?- What does 
'Niagara' mean, Uncle?" 

"They say it means the Thunder of the Waters.' " 
"Who discovered Niagara?" asked James. 




Father Hennepin at Niagara 

"Father Hennepin is the first white man who is 
known to have seen the falls," answered Major Woods. 
"He came here in December, 1678. But it is quite pos- 
sible that Etienne Brule, Champlain's interpreter, was 
here sixty years earlier." 

"You have just been reading the description of the 
Falls that Cooper puts into the mouth of Hawkeye ; per- 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 91 

haps you would like to hear Father Hennepin's. Of 
course he wrote in French, but in 1698, Tonson, a famous 
London bookseller, published a translation, and I have a 
copy of that. You can see that it is rather old, for the 
spelling is not quite like that of today, and a good many 
words begin with capitals. Hennepin wrote : 'Betwixt 
the Lakes Ontario and Erie, there is a vast and pro- 
digious Cadence of Water wdiich falls down after a sur- 
prising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the 
Universe does not afford its Parallel. At the foot of this 
horrible Precipice, we meet the River Niagara, which 
is not above half a quarter of a League broad, but is 
wonderfully deep in some places. It is so rapid above 
this Descent, that it violently hurries down the wild 
Beasts while endeavouring to pass it to feed on the other 
side, they not being able to withstand the force of its 
Current, which inevitably casts them down headlong 
above six hundred foot.' " 

*' Why ! are the Falls that high ?" asked James. 

"Oh, no. Father Hennepin was a good deal given 
to exaggeration. The Horseshoe Fall is really only 155 
feet high, and the American Fall is 162 feet. But let 
me finish reading. Father Hennepin goes on : 'This 
wonderful Downfall is compounded of two great Cross- 
streams of Water, and two Falls, with an Isle sloping 
along the middle of it. The Waters which fall from this 
vast height, do foam and boil after the most hideous 
manner imaginable, making an outrageous Noise, more 
terrible than Thunder; for when the Wind blows from 
off the South, their dismal roaring may be heard above 
fifteen Leagues off.' Really, you see, his account is 



92 



THE MOIIAWK VALLEY 



fairly accurate. He also made the first sketch of the 
Falls, a crude drawing, not very exact in proportions, but 
clear enough to show that they haven't changed so very 
greatly in the last 250 years." 

At Lewiston, the party again took the trolley, and 
went up through the gorge. The scene was too thrilling 




Niagara Falls 

and impressive for speech, and they were all silent until 
the car brought them up once more to the top of the 
plateau. They left the car again on the Canadian side 
opposite the falls, and stood a long time watching the 
water pour over the crest, and the 'Maid of the Mist' 
far below them creeping, as it seemed, to the very foot 
of the cataract. 

"What makes the Horseshoe Fall curved and the 
American Fall straight, Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie. 



AND LAKE ONTARTO 93 

"I don't know," answered the Major. ''Perhaps the 
geologists could tell. But the Indians had a legend to 
account for it. According to their myth, Heno, the 
Thunderer, with his two assistant thunderers, lived in a 
great cave under the Falls, which were once straight 
instead of curved. Now, it happened long ages ago that 
a maiden who belonged to a tribe living in a village at 
the mouth of Cayuga Creek, was betrothed by her par- 
ents to an old man. He was rich and powerful, but had an 
ugly face and a mean, hateful disposition. The maiden 
could not bear the idea of marrying this old man, but she 
knew she could escape only by death. She thought death 
better than such a life, so one dark, cloudy day she pad- 
dled her canoe out into the river, and let the swift cur- 
rent carry her down. Her kinsman and friends called 
to her to save herself, and some of the more daring ones 
even started after her, but she sat perfectly still, and 
they watched her while she was swept over the brink 
of the precipice. To their surprise, they saw an empty 
canoe ride down the cataract, but the maiden had dis- 
appeared. 

"What had happened was this : Heno and his two 
assistants, who had been watching too, caught her in a 
blanket and carried her to their home behind the Falls. 
One of the assistants fell in love with her and finally 
married her. 

"The legend further tells that the people of her vil- 
lage had for years been troubled by an annual pestilence, 
which filled their graveyard and kept the village in almost 
continual mourning. Now, after the maiden had lived 
under the Falls for nearlv a vear, Heno tol<l her what 



94 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

caused the pestilence, and sent her back to her people to 
warn and save them. It seems that under the village 
there lived a serpent who made his annual meal upon the 
bodies of those who had died during the year. Since he 
was a greedy serpent, he managed to insure a plentiful 
supply of bodies by poisonmg the waters of Cayuga 
Creek and of the Niagara River. 

"The maiden told her people about the serpent and 
explained that Heno had said they must move their vil- 
lage over to Buffalo Creek. They did so, and the ser- 
pent, hearing no sounds and seeing no more bodies 
brought to the burial ground, raised his great head above 
the waters and looked about him. He saw no people, 
but he found their trail, and in a rage followed the people 
up the river, into the lake, and up Buffalo Creek. But 
Heno was waiting for him, and when he got into the 
shallow waters of Buft'alo Creek killed him with a thun- 
derbolt. 

"The serpent's body floated down the river and lodged 
on the verge of the cataract on the Canadian side. A 
part of the huge body arched back in a semi-circle, and 
the waters, thus dammed up, finally broke through the 
rock behind the body and formed the Horseshoe Fall. 
Don't you think that's a very plausible explanation of 
how one fall happens to be straight and the other 
curved ?" 

"Yes. indeed !" said Carrie, "but what became of the 
Thunderer ?" 

"Oh, his home was entirely destroyed, as well as the 
passageway which used to lead clear across the river 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 95 

under the Falls. That is why you can now only go a 
little ways behind them." 

"Where did Heno go then ?" asked James. 

"The Indians say that after that he made his home 
in the West. I suppose they, say that because thunder- 
storms so often come late in the afternoon. 

"Now, we'll get a carriage and go over to Goat 
Island." 

After going back to the American side, they drove 
all around the park, and, after making the circuit of Goat 
Island, sat where they could see the Falls, and looked, 
and talked, and looked again. 

"Well," said Carrie at last, "it does grow on you, 
doesn't it? It seems lots more impressive than it did at 
first. I was really disappointed at my first glimpse of 
the falls when we started down to Lewiston." 

"Yes," answered the Major. "I have seen them many 
times, and each time they seem more wonderful to me." 

"How old are the falls. Uncle Jack ?" asked James. 

"The geologists don't agree, except that they have 
been many thousands of years in cutting their way back 
to where they are now. You see they have dug out all 
those miles of gorge that we came up through." 

"Then some day they'll be clear back at Buffalo ?" 

"Probably. But that won't happen for some hun- 
dreds of years yet. at their present rate. They won't 
change much in our time, though some people are wor- 
ried for fear the power companies will take enough water 
to spoil them. 

"Those power companies," he added, after a pause, 
"which now furnish electric current to light the streets 



96 THE MOHAWK VALLEY 

and run the dynamos of places so far away as Rochester 
and Toronto, may yet do something hardly dreamed of. 
You children may live to see some of the power of this 
tremendous flood of water, falling so many feet, used to 
raise and lower great boats from one lake to the other. 
In that case, this cataract, which for over two hundred 
years has been the great barrier to free water communi- 
cation, will be made to surmount its own obstacle. Then 
bigger boats than any now on the lakes will steam from 
Chicago to the sea as easily as if Lake Erie and Lake 
Ontario were on the same level. Won't that seem 
marvelous ?" 

"Aunt Lucy, why don't you talk?" asked Carrie. 
'T don't want to talk, my dear. It's all too wonder- 
ful. I was thinking just now of some lines I read the 
other day : 

'It would seem 
As if God poured thee from his 'hollow hand,' 
And hung his bow upon thine awful front, 
And spoke in that loud voice which seemed to him 
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Savior's sake, 
'The sound of many waters,' and had bade 
The flood to chronicle the ages back. 
And notch his centuries in the eternal rocks.'" 

'T like that!" said James. "Who wrote it, Aunt 
Lucy ?" 

'Tt is a part of a poem written by a man named 
Brainerd, a great many ye^s ago. The wonderful thing 
about it is that the poet had never seen the Falls." 

At last Major Woods started to his feet. "Well, 
well," he said, "we must be moving. Milton will get 
into Bufifalo long before we do, if. we don't look out. 



AND LAKE ONTARIO 97 

So take one last look for this time, and then we must 

go." 

At Buffalo, a taxicab whirled them up to the entrance 
of the Lafayette Hotel, and as they went into the lobby 
a tall, bronzed young man strode toward them. 

''Well, Aunt Lucy!" he cried, "Fm surely glad to 
see you again ! And here are Jim and Carrie ! How are 
you. Uncle Jack?" 

"First rate, Milton Avery," answered the Major, 
"but your letter certainly hurried us up. Don't you 
know, young man, that we are traveling for pleasure, 
and ought not to be made to rush by places where we 
wanted to linger?" 

"Fm sorry. Uncle Jack, but I have to go on to Quebec 
in the morning, and I didn't want to miss you altogether. 
You see, they told me in Chicago about your plans." 

"Well, well ! Let's get settled and go in to dinner. 
Then you can tell us all about Alaska." 




AND LAKE ONTARIO 



99 



QUESTIONS 

Trace the route from Kingston to Buffalo. How far is it in 
inches? in miles? 

Measure the distance from Buffalo to New York by way of 
Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and the sea; how far is 
it in inches? in miles? Measure ^Iso the distance by way of 
the Erie Canal and the Hudson River; how far is it in inches? 
in miles? How much shorter is it than the other route? 

Some of the proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows: 

Massasauga (mas sa saw'gah) Hen'ne pin 

Etienne Brulfe (et yen' broo lay') 

Spell, pronounce, and explain the following words: 
seaworthy arable manufactory 

plateau gorge besieged 

chateau bastions cataract 

geologists chronicle precipice 

prodigious inevitably exaggeration 

imaginable outrageous betrothed 

pestilence plausible verge 

How many days has it taken our party to travel from Burl- 
ington, Vermont, to Buffalo? On what day of the week did they 
leave BurHngton? How far have' they traveled in a straight 
line? How far did they actually travel? 



Graded List of Lakeside Classics 

AND 

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No. 49. Selection from English Poets. 

" Edited by J. J. Burns. 
COLERIDGE — The Ancient Mariner, 

Christabel, Kubla Khan, France, An 

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WORDSWORTH — Ode to Immortal- 
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